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MY HOLIDAY 


IN 


AUSTRIA. 





- 


y^TfM "■- ' ' - V .i,- ! 


A jS SALZBURG. 

LIZZIE SELINA EDEN, 


AUTHOR OF 


"A LADY'S GLIMPSE OF THE WAR IN BOHEMIA." 


s LONDON: 

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 

13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 

1869. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Our Holiday — Cabmen and Roughs— A Moral Waterman 
— A Rat — Escape from unknown Peril — Voyage in Rhine 
Steamer No. 26 — The Captain's Autobiography — From 
Cologne to Bingen — The Convent of Perpetual Prayer — 
Arrival at Salzburg . . . . ... 3 

CHAPTER II. 

Berchtesgaden — A French Traveller — Austrian Dislike to 
Mutton— Austrian Sheep — Amulets of Snails' Teeth — 
The Austrian Frau — German and Bohemian Servants — 
Visit to the Salt Mines — Miners' Costume — Subterranean 
Lake 23 

CHAPTER m. 

Walk to Konigsee — German Names of Flowers — Butterflies 
— Row on the Lake — The Obersee — Boats on the Lake — 
Our French Friend in Scotland — Ischl — The Dachstein 
— Excursions — Hotel Kreutz —Neglect of Ventilation — 
Intolerable Nuisance — The Promenade . . .47 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Beggars in Ischl — Dance at the Casino — Hungarian Pride 
— The Court at Ischl — The Imperial Family — The Clergy 
and the New Laws — Imperial Favour to Hungary — Wild 
Flowers; — Cheap Fruit 71 

CHAPTER V. 

Walk to the Rettenbach Muhle — Accident to a Russian 
Prince and his Son — A Love-story — Hallstadt — Deformed 
People and Idiots — Visit to Obertraun — Journey into 
Styria — The Einspanner — Alt-Aussee . 93 

CHAPTER VI. 

Ebensee — The Inn and the Water-mill — King and Queen 
of Hanover — The Salt- Works — Process of Manufacture — 
Condition of the Workmen — Herr von Prinzinger — Mum- 
my Children — A Suggestion to Baron von Beust . Ill 

CHAPTER VTL 

Floating down Timber — Destruction of a Village by Fire — 
Cooking Salmon — A Dance in the Inn — The Emperor as 
a Sportsman — Trout Preserve — The Landlady at the 
Krahe — Shooting Lodge at Offensee — Virginian Creeper 
and Tea-plant — An Imperial Huntsman . . 133 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Linz — Military Music — Austrian Uniform — Promotion in 
the Army — Petty Jealousies — Recruiting — Women em- 



CONTENTS. Vll 

ployed as Labourers — Navigation of the Danube — Scenery 
on its Banks — Military Cadets — Kissing and Shaking 
Hands — Vienna 153 

CHAPTER IX. 

Briinn am Geberge — Signal for the Village Cows — Sense- 
less Game — State of Religion — Pilgrimages to St. Maria 
Enzensdorf — Absurd Ceremonies — Abundance of Fruit — 
Improvements in Austrian Inns — SchneUsieder — Prepara- 
tion of Coffee 177 

CHAPTER X. 

Street Scenes in Briinn — Hungarian Ox-Drivers — Cultiva- 
tion of Maize— Country Inns — Herr and Frau von H 

— Employment of Dogs — Petersdorf — Beautiful Church 
— Sufferings of Petersdorf from War — Besieged by the 
Turks — Jacob Trinkgeld — Destruction of the Hospital 
Church . . 195 

CHAPTER XI. 

German Vineyards — The Trade in Grapes — Austrian 
Wines— Straw Wine — Growth of Maize — The Marquis 
of Carabbas— The Vintage — Romance and Reality — A 
Vintage Supper 215 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Day at Laxenburg — House of Correction for Women — 
Count Chorinsky and Julie Ebergenye — Institution for 
Deaconesses — Palace and Gardens — Castle of Franzens- 
berg — Mbdling — Castle of Liechtenstein — Church of St. 
Othmar 233 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Railway from Vienna to Linz — Views round Salzburg — 
Caves of the Untersberg — The Sleeping Warriors of 
Kaiser Karl — Gnomes — A Prophetic Tree — Strife in a 
Convent — Appearance and Costume of the Peasantry — 
Dialect of the District 253 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Post-office Routine — Stamps — Official Neglect — Progress 
of Austria — Monchberg — Chateau of Aigen — The Gais- 
berg — Politeness of Soldiers — Fox-shooting— Preparations 
for Winter — Cold Mghts — The Peasants at Home . 271 

CHAPTER XV. 

L'Homme Propose, Dieu Dispose—Salzburg under its Win- 
ter Aspect — Unexpected Death of a Kind Friend — End 
of the Soldier's Warfare — God's- Acre — Funeral of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Ritter von Ari . . . . 293 



HSffjaphr I. 



OUR HOLIDAY — CABMEN AND ROUGHS — A MORAL WATERMAN 
—A RAT — ESCAPE FROM UNKNOWN PERIL — VOYAGE IN 
RHINE STEAMER NO. 26 — THE CAPTAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
— FROM COLOGNE TO BINGEN — THE CONVENT OF PER- 
PETUAL PRAYER — ARRIVAL AT SALZBURG. 



CHAPTER I. 

11 IT holiday began on the hottest day of 
-*-"-*- the very hot June of the year 1868. 
We (that is, myself and a German friend) 
arrived in London on the evening of the 27th, 
to find the atmosphere almost suffocating, and 
to feel thankful we were only in it for one night. 
Our adventures began, on leaving Cannon 
Street Station, by finding that the drivers of 
both of our cabs were rather the worse for the 
trying weather, having endeavoured to miti- 
gate the heat by imbibing freely. However, 
the more sober of the two pioneered the 
way to Hermitage Wharf, of which the other 
declared he had no knowledge whatever. 

B2 



4 Hermitage Wharf. 

We had no sooner arrived there than from 
a neighbouring alley appeared a dozen street 
ruffians of the most ragged and unwashed 
aspect, who all clamoured vociferously for 
the honour of conveying our luggage to 
the boat which was to take us on board 
the Batavier. 

It was a horrid, cut-throat-looking place, 
and our tipsy drivers fully sympathised with 
us. However, we ascertained that this really 
was Hermitage Wharf; and having accepted 
the chaperonage of some of these roughs to 
the end of the alley, in order to convince 
myself that the Batavier was really lying in 
mid-stream, we ventured to trust our lug- 
gage and parcels into the hands of the un- 
washed ; and having followed them along 
the dark alley and down a steep step-ladder, 
we entered a boat. Then began the clam- 
our for payment. I asked how much they 



Exacting Roughs. 5 

wished. They proposed eight shillings. I 
intimated to them that sixpence a-piece was 
about what I considered ample remuneration. 
Of course a long argument followed, and at 
last I admitted that one box of books was 
rather heavy (it weighed over two cwts.), 
and offered, as the night was particularly 
sultry, to give another threepence to each 
man. Accordingly, I presented them with 
the sum of three shillings, assuring them 
if I had to sit there all night they 
should have no more. At the same time 
I felt I would gladly have given anything 
to get away from such a set of ruffians. 
Luckily they were tired of my stinginess, 
and went off tolerably contented. The 
cunning old waterman then remarked, 

"It was such a shame to allow such 
men about. What a set of rogues they 
were to try and impose on ladies ! " — con- 



6 Cunning Old Waterman, 

eluding his observations with a long moral 
lecture on the sin of such imposition. 

In four minutes we were alongside the 
Batavier ; and in two more, ourselves and 
our luggage were safe on board. It was 
now the turn of the moral waterman to 
make his demand and receive payment. 
When I asked, "And how much am I to 
pay you?" he replied, "Well, ma'am, / 
would not impose on you or any lady 
for the world, so I will say six shil- 
lings /" 

I really felt furious, and told him no- 
thing on earth would persuade me to give 
him so much, particularly after his high- 
toned address. Then followed another long 
altercation, which ended by his assuring 
me any officer on board the ship would 
tell me it was not too much. The old 
rogue, having looked round, had seen that 



Prevention of Impostion. 7 

none of the officers were on board. How- 
ever, as there were some officers of India- 
men or merchant ships waiting to go 
down in the morning to Greenwich, I ap- 
pealed to them. One of them very kindly 
inquired into the number of our boxes, 
&c, and then assured me three shillings 
was ample. "Leave it here, ma'am, and if 
the man won't take it, he must go with- 
out." I thanked the officer, wished him 
good night, and we went off to our 
cabin. 

Surely something ought to be done, in a 
great city like London, to guard travellers 
against such annoyances. Foreigners (es- 
pecially with heavy luggage) travel by these 
steamers via Rotterdam very often, and get 
so abominably imposed on. Surely a very 
little management would be necessary to 
make such arrangement that proper porters, 



8 Voyage down the Thames. 

with a reasonable tariff of charges, might 
be established. 

Next morning early we steamed down to 
Blackwall, where we took our passengers on 
board; among them two young German 
ladies, who were to be our fellow-passen- 
gers to Mayence. We had a bright day 
for our voyage down the Thames, and 
there was nothing to break the monotony 
but the usual substantial heavy English din- 
ner, which ocoupied some time in the mid- 
dle of the day. At night it came on to 
blow rather fresh, and the sounds of woe 
and lamentation arose from many parts of 
the ship. I was awakened by a crash, occa- 
sioned by a lurch which sent the water-jug 
and bottle into collision. 

In the morning I begged the stewardess 
to see what damage had been done. She 
found the water-bottle broken, and the water 



A Eat ! 9 

all over the place. She proceeded to put 
it all in order, but presently interrupted 
her proceedings by a piercing shriek, and 
a call for the steward, accompanied by the 
unexpected exclamation, 

" A rat ! a rat !" 

To my surprise, the youngest of the 
German sisters went into fits of laughter, 
and begged that the " rat " might be given 
up to her. On examination, the cause of the 
stewardess's alarm proved to be the frisette 
of her chignon ! which she had put into 
the drawer of the washing-stand for safety 
the night before. 

We arrived, as is invariably the case, too 
late at Rotterdam to catch the Rhine 
boat on Monday morning. We had, there- 
fore, to spend the day as best we could, 
walking over the park, and through the 
streets, which are pleasantly clean and 



10 Rhine Steamer No. 26. 

neat — nearly as much intersected with canals 
as those of Venice. 

Early next .morning we went on board 
No. 26 Rhine steamer, a small, cranky boat, 
on her last voyage. We had not left Rot- 
terdam long before a curious figure came up 
the gangway, a female with a most woful 
countenance, with a stuff dress, nearly burnt 
to rags, hanging on to her. We were ob- 
liged to ask how she came into such a con- 
dition, and she informed us that she had 
been a steerage passenger on board the 
Batavier, in which there was a woman with 
two children, in the same cabin with 
her — the woman having a spirit-lamp, to 
make some food warm for the children. A 
lurch of the steamer having upset the lighted 
spirits, the whole place was instantly in a 
blaze, and it was not without considerable 
difficulty that the fire was extinguished. 



Escape from Unknown Peril. 

Her burnt dress was a convincing proof 
of the truth of her statement ; and as the 
other woman was on board, with us, the 
Captain demanded from her the bottle of 
spirits, and flung it overboard. While we 
congratulated ourselves on our escape from 
this unknown peril of Sunday night, we na- 
turally reflected on the terrors of a fire on 
board ship, that most frightful of all dis- 
asters, which it might have been our mis- 
fortune to undergo. 

We had a very uneventful day, steaming 
slowly through the flat, ugly country, only 
occasionally stopping at a picturesque town 
or village to take in a few country-people, 
or some soldiers on leave. Except our- 
selves, there were no first-class passengers on 
board, and we were so unsocial as to think 
this very pleasant. There was, indeed, 
something very soothing and pleasing in 



12 Prussian Custom-house Officers, 

the perfect calm, all around, broken only 
by the sound of the paddles, and the occa- 
sional cry from the shore of a heron dis^ 
turbed by the wash of the steamer from 
its grave fishing business. On the approach 
of evening we came to Emmerich, where 
the steamer stayed all night. 

The Custom-house officers came on board, 
and were very strict in their search; the 
reason of which the Captain explained by 
telling us that a great quantity of lace 
was smuggled into Prussia by the Rhine 
way. For the officers of the steamers these 
visits of the Douaniers must be a most 
tedious affair. About eleven the search 
was concluded, and the Prussian officers 
left. All the passengers retired to their 
berths, except one of my German friends 
and myself. As there was a splendid 
moon, and it was quite warm, we deter- 



Our Captains Autobiography. 13 

mined to stay much longer on deck. Be- 
ing also rather hungry, we had some Eng- 
lish potted meat, nice Dutch bread and 
butter, and a bottle of Rhine wine. 

The Captain of the steamer returned 
soon after from escorting the Custom- 
house officials on shore, and we begged 
him to join us, and have a glass of wine. 
He was very pleasant, and talked with a 
refinement superior to his occupation. Hap- 
pening to speak to him of the navigation 
of the Rhine, and of the many large rafts 
on it, he told us that, more than twenty 
years ago, he had himself been nothing 
but a common raftsman on the river, till, 
by degrees, he rose to command one. That 
time, he said, was the happiest period of 
his life, for he then had a wife, whom he 
loved dearly, and who was as good as she 
was beautiful. She was always with him 



14 On the Rhine. 

on the raft, and they lived contentedly 
and happily on it. After twenty years 
married life, without one cloud to oversha- 
dow it, she died suddenly of cholera, and 
left him with one little child, only three 
years old. Henceforth his raft had no 
charm for him, and he became mate of a 
steamer, and afterwards captain. He ended 
by saying that though he spent every 
day upon the Rhine, and saw many rafts 
on his passages up and down the river, 
yet he never passed one without thinking 
of his beautiful lost wife, and wondering 
if any of the rafts contained people as 
happy as they once were in those bygone 
days. He would not take any more wine, 
but wishing us good night, he went away 
to his cabin, where he told us the picture 
of his wife always hung. 

Next day we pursued our quiet lazy voy- 



Mayence. 15 

age, going tip slowly against the stream, 
till we stopped for the night at Cologne. 
There was enough daylight left for us to 
wander about the beautiful Cathedral, ad- 
miring the splendid stained glass through 
the bright summer sunset, and returning on 
board to sleep. 

The following day came the well-known 
picturesque part of the river between Co- 
logne and Bingen. At Mayence we took 
leave of our pleasant Captain and his 
rickety little steamer. I also bid fare- 
well to two of my German friends, who 
were going on to Frankfort, and who had 
helped me to pass the long journey most 

pleasantly. Fr'aulein S and I landed 

and proceeded to the railway station, where 
we left our luggage, and went into the town. 
It was too late, however, to see the Cathe- 
dral, or the Convent of Perpetual Prayer, 



16 Convent of Perpetual Prayer. 

which my friend was very anxious I should 
see ; but on applying at the wicket, the nun 
who answered us said it was beyond the 
usual hour of admittance. We had, there- 
fore, to be contented with hearing, in the 
distance, the far-away murmur of the per- 
petual prayer, which never ceases. As 
soon as one set of nuns terminate their 
prescribed devotions at the high altar, 
their place is taken by another, and so the 
prayers are continued day and night — for 
ever ! 

At Darmstadt I said good-bye with 
great regret to my last travelling com- 
panion, and went on alone to Munich, and 
from there to Salzburg. The latter part 
of the journey was charming. I had again 
fortunately met with a most agreeable com- 
panion, with whom I enjoyed the beautiful 
landscape, which was illuminated by a full 



Salzburg. 17 

moon, shining brightly over a broken, 
varied foreground of hills, woods, and 
valleys. In such circumstances the beauti- 
ful view of the distant mountains of the 
Salzkammergut put sleep out of the ques- 
tion. The time only passed too quickly 
till we arrived at Salzburg, where the 
Custom-house examination was very brief. 
The officers were most polite, all they did 
being to mark my boxes with hieroglyphics 
in white chalk, a duty which they accom- 
plished with a courteous bow and "kiss 
your hand." I felt I was once more back 
again in dear Austria. 

I was very glad to arrive at the Goldenes 
Schiff Hotel, and hurry upstairs. Though 
it was past one o'clock, I was obliged to 
waken up the friend I had come out to 
join, and insist on her getting up and 
hearing all my adventures. 

C 



18 Goldenes Schiff Hotel. 

The view from my windows next morn- 
ing delighted me, looking upon the princi- 
pal square, with a beautiful high marble 
fountain in the centre. The design was 
highly ornamental, consisting of rock-work, 
and of large sea-horses and dolphins, spout- 
ing high jets of water from their nostrils. 
The Cathedral was just in front, and on 
one side was the Royal Palace, where the 
Empress Caroline resides; while on the 
other were the post-office and other public 
buildings. Here also* is the main guard, 
with Austrian Jager on sentry. Behind 
the Cathedral rise precipitously the pic- 
turesque rocks surmounted by the old 
Castle. 

I was also greatly delighted with my 
friend's room. On opening a door in it I 
discovered an inner window, which opened 
into the interior of a small chapel (St. 



St. Martin's Chapel 19 

Martin's). It was, of course, high up 
above the gallery, facing the high altar, 
where the silver lamp was always burning. 
The Goldenes SchifF is a most comfortable 
hotel, and its terms are very reasonable. 
In fact, rooms and food are much cheaper 
than in most of the small towns ; and it 
is no slight recommendation that both the 
landlady and her son — who are most at- 
tentive to their visitors — speak excellent 
English. 



C2 



(Bfljaptn* II. 



BERCHTESGADEN— A FRENCH TRAVELLER—AUSTRIAN DISLIKE 
TO MUTTON— AUSTRIAN SHEEP — AMULETS OF SNAILS' 
TEETH — THE AUSTRIAN FRAU — GERMAN AND BOHEMIAN 
SERVANTS— VISIT TO THE SALT MINES— MINERS 1 COSTUME 
— SUBTERRANEAN LAKE. 



23 



CHAPTER II. 



T)EFORE we finally left Salzburg, we 
*~* went over for a couple of days to 
the beautiful district of Berchtesgaden. 
This little bit of Bavaria, which just abuts 
into the middle of the Imperial preserves, 
is only about twelve miles from Salzburg. 
It abounds in game, which is strictly pre- 
served. This' must be an intense annoy- 
ance to that keen sportsman, the Emperor 
of Austria, some of whose best chamois 
and black-game shooting lies in the im- 
mediate proximity. 

We went by diligence next morning at 
an unearthly hour — even before the first 



24 Journey by Diligence. 

early service in the little chapel into 
which our rooms opened. The day was 
lovely, and the road very beautiful. Of 
course, the scenery was not seen to ad- 
vantage from the interior of the lumber- 
ing old vehicle in which we were journey- 
ing. The first three miles ran through 
luxuriant meadows, nicely bordered with 
large apple, pear, and plum trees ; and we 
had the beautiful high peaks of the chain 
of Salzburg Alps before us all the way. 
Presently we entered a thickly-wooded 
glen, with everything to make it perfect — 
rills, rocks, tiny lakes, and, above all, the 
lofty peaks of the Untersberg and Hohe- 
Goll. We passed through a custom-house, 
but the examination is only a nominal 
thing, as we had not even to alight. 
We had only to answer the polite inquiry 
whether we had anything to " declare." 



A Travelled Frenchman. 25 

As no one is questioned on honour, I 
should think a small trade might be very 
easily managed here with forbidden goods. 
I was much amused during the drive 
by a Frenchman who occupied the ■coupe' . 
As the window between that compartment 
and the body of the carriage had been 
left behind, either for coolness or economy, 
I could overhear all his conversation with 
an Austrian gentleman whom we picked 
up outside the town. This Frenchman 
could neither understand nor speak one 
word of any language except his own, 
though he had travelled alone over the 
greatest part of Europe, including Great 
Britain. He complained bitterly that in 
Scotland he had almost utterly failed in 
making himself understood, either by signs 
or in any other way ; and not only from 
the strong disapproval he expressed by 



26 Domestic Economy, 

words, but also from his expressive gesti- 
culations, I do not think the "land of 
brown heath and shaggy wood" will ever 
again be honoured by his presence. 

This gentleman seemed, too, to have an 
unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and one 
question he asked the Austrian I had 
often regretted, since my last visit to 
Germany, it had never occurred to me to put 
to any one. The important question was — 
"Why you never saw any flocks of sheep 
in Austria, and why you rarely or never 
have mutton?" The reply was, that in 
the more southern parts, where there are 
large plains, you find great numbers of 
sheep, but that "mutton is never willingly 
eaten by the Germans." 

Since that day I have improved my 
knowledge wonderfully of the domestic 
economy of Austria ; and before the end of 



Dislike of Mutton. 27 

the autumn I fully sympathised with the 
Austrians in their dislike of mutton, feel- 
ing strongly inclined to agree with them 
that it is decidedly unwholesome! 

Sometimes, during the season in summer, 
you have some excellent dark mountain mut- 
ton, which is quite equal to Welch or any 
that I have eaten. But late in the year, 
when visitors have left Salzburg, and deli- 
cacies are rare, it is different. 

Contrary to the express orders of the mas- 
ter of the house, we sometimes contrived a 
small joint of mutton for dinner, for a treat to 
our English appetites; but when it came on the 
table and was cut, we used to look guiltily 
at each other as we tried to eat it, and 
pretend it was excellent, though the fact was 
we hid great pieces away, as in our school- 
room days, under potatoe skins or pieces of 
salad. Anything so rank, so stringy, so dis- 



28 Austrian Sheep. 

gusting, I never ate. After trying it twice, 
we gave in, and had to adopt thankfully 
the Austrian view, that their insipid veal and 
perpetual beef are, after all, most wholesome, 
even for sick people or young children. 

In the end of autumn, when all the grain 
was harvested, and all the hay cut that could 
possibly be mowed off the rich pastures, I saw 
a few flocks of sheep on them. The very 
sight of them was enough to indicate that 
the mutton must be bad. The sheep them- 
selves appear to be aware of it, for they 
have a sneaking, dissatisfied look, and al- 
ways keep in a crowd, trying to hide them- 
selves. Except in very old pictures, and in 
engravings in Bibles centuries old, I never 
saw such animals, with long flapping ears 
that would have gained any rabbit a prize 
for lop-ears, long legs and arched backs, 
like New Forest pigs. Even in the bitter 



Their Scanty Fleeces. 29 

winter weather they have scarcely any pre- 
tence of wool on their backs, certainly not 
nearly as mnch as a month old lamb. About 
Salzburg these were the only sort of sheep 
I saw; but I was told that great efforts 
are being made to introduce a better breed. 
Large sums have been given for some from 
England; and with the wonderfully rich pas- 
tures and mountain fields that they have 
here, what a rich return their introduction 
may make to the country ! 

They complain now that English wool 
manufacturers are ruining the woollen goods 
of Austria, from the superior cheapness and 
quality of their productions. They would 
be surprised to know how few fleeces it takes 
in Scotland to make a dress of home-spun, 
while here a whole flock would scarcely 
afford wool enough to make one even in 
times of reduced crinoline, short skirt, and 



30 Amulet of Snails' Teeth. 

no gathers ! Still there is so much in pre- 
judice ; and from their ignorance the lower 
orders and servants are wonderfully preju- 
diced. 

There is one — only one — person in Salz- 
burg who can extract the teeth of snails. 
These, worn round the neck of a baby while 
teething, are an invaluable safe-guard against 
convulsions. The gardener's wife said she 
knew that snails had teeth, for on a still 
day she would listen while they were feed- 
ing, and could hear them biting with their 
teeth; but though they will wear these 
amulets, and eat the original owner (snails 
properly cooked are excellent), yet you can- 
not persuade servants to eat mutton, not 
even excellent dark-coloured mountain mut- 
ton, almost as good as venison! In Salz- 
burg, mutton isonly twenty kreuzers a pound, 
which would be about fourpence a pound 



Servants in Austria. 31 

English, as their weight is much heavier 
than ours. Even the servants won't eat it, 
but prefer the stringy beef of which soup 
has been made. 

I think next to Baron von Beust, the 
person most to be admired, and least to 
be envied, in Germany, is an English- 
woman at the head of an Austrian house- 
hold, who can really keep things toler- 
ably together. The amount of prejudice 
and ignorance in the servants you have 
to combat; the dread of fresh air and 
free circulation ; the saints' days on which 
they won't work, and the Sundays on 
which they will ; the greasy cooking ; the 
beloved heavy puddings; the wonderful 
joints of meat; the dreadful knives that 
won't cut, and the good beer that won't 
keep ! All these things are enough to 
turn the brain of a refined, practical Eng- 
lishwoman. 






32 The Middle Classes. 

I am not now speaking of the higher 
classes or the nobility. They are tree 
from the prejudices to which I allude, 
and are much more enlightened and liberal. 
From what I have seen of then domestic 
life, it in most respects quite resembles 
our own in England. Among the middle 
classes, however, these prejudices reign 
supreme. The wives of professional men, 
who in England would live most comfort- 
ably, with good, trustworthy servants, and 
in an elegant, pretty home, surrounded 
by the comforts and luxuries of life, and in 
the enjoyment of society, pass their morn- 
ings in a state of perfect slavery, in 
slovenly half dress, either in the kitchen, 
looking after the cooking and the rubbing 
of the floors, or in the nursery, seeing 
that the unfortunate baby is not left in a 
tub of water, or has not choked itself 



The German Frau, 33 

with sour semmel. And this morning oc- 
cupation is not the supervision that any 
woman willingly undertakes ; but really 
hard manual work, doing the labour of an 
inferior class of servants ! The consequence 
is that no time is left for mental culti- 
vation, or for keeping up the accomplish- 
ments acquired early in life. 

In the afternoon, after dinner, coffee, 
and an hour's sleep, you sometimes see 
the Frau Doctorin or the Frau General on 
the esplanade, or at the bath rooms; but 
generally they are too tired or too much 
occupied even for this indulgence. Even 
if tolerably well-educated women thus sink 
down into the condition of the stigma- 
tized German Frau, one ceases to wonder 
that there is such a gap here between 
the nobles and middle classes, as the every- 
day life makes society impossible to the 

D 



34 Bohemian Servants, 

latter. Of course there are many excep- 
tions, and, I am glad to say, among my 
own friends, some very bright ones; but 
in any town in Germany you will find 
that the reverse is the rule with almost 
all the wives of the doctors, lawyers, re- 
tired officers, and professional men. Till 
the servants in Germany are improved, I 
do not see how this state of things is to 
be altered. Their great faults are extreme 
stupidity and utter carelessness in the dis- 
charge of their ordinary duties — a happy- 
go-lucky sort of way. 

From what I have seen in this part of 
the country, the Bohemians make the best 
servants, as they are decidedly more ac- 
tive, clever, and intelligent. But in the 
other countries of Germany there is a pre- 
judice against them, as they say they are 
such thieves. There is a traditional story 



Visit to the Salt Mines. 35 

of three beggars — a North-German, a Slav, 
and a Bohemian, who, travelling in com- 
pany together, entered a house in which 
they observed a beautiful watch lying on 
a table. Shortly after leaving the house, 
the North-German remarked, 

"That was a beautiful watch." 

"Yes," said the Slav, "and we might 
have taken it." 

"I have got it," triumphantly exclaimed 
the Bohemian. 

After we had breakfasted, on our ar- 
rival at Berchtesgaden (for we had left 
Salzburg about five in the morning), we 
drove to the salt mines, about a mile out 
of the village. Tickets to view them are 
bought at the office of the salt works, 
when the necessary number of visitors are 
collected to form a party. Proceeding then 
to the robing-room, we take off our usual 

d2 



36 A Metamorphosis. 

dress, and reappear in Bloomer costume — 
long white trousers, dark tunics, leather 
belts and aprons, and rather elaborately 
ornamented caps. There were six of us, 
all feeling horribly shy and awkward, and 
staring and giggling at each other. None 
of us had courage sufficient to be the first 
to descend the stairs and join the ten 
gentlemen below, who, their dress also 
having undergone a metamorphosis, had 
been changed — at least in appearance — 
into working miners. At last I suggested 
to some of the ladies who had husbands 
below that probably they would be tired 
of waiting, and so prevailed on them to 
be the first to descend. 

I could not help feeling surprised to see 
how the dowdy, common-place-looking 
women, in their smart holiday finery, came 
out quite pretty and graceful in their 



Costume of Miners. 3? 

Bloomer costume. We need not have felt 
so shy about our descent, for the gentle- 
men below evidently felt just as awkward 
and as foolish in their miners' dress as 
we did in our unusual attire. The salt- 
men themselves were too well used to the 
metamorphosis even to look amused, and 
took little or no notice of us. In fact, 
it would be out of character with the 
dress of a salt works official ever to smile 
or look amused; for though very striking 
and handsome, it is extremely sombre 
and funereal-looking. It consists of dark 
trousers and waistcoat, with a tunic-coat 
of black cloth, lined with black velvet. 
On the arm is worked, in silver, a miner's 
hammer and pick; and they carry in their 
hands, on grand occasions, a baton of 
silver, with a pick at one end and a 
spike at the other. A lighted candle was 



38 Subterranean Lake. 

given to each of us to carry, and we 
were then marshalled across the high road 
to the entrance of the mine. 

We followed the guides a considerable 
distance through a long undergound pas- 
sage, through doorways, and up and down 
numerous side galleries, till we came to a 
very black, dreary-looking subterranean 
lake, which filled a large cavern. It was 
lighted all round the edge with hundreds 
of candles, which showed its dimensions, 
and made it look more gloomy and de- 
pressing. We entered a flat-bottomed boat, 
and were rowed first to a small fountain, 
the dripping of whose waters was the 
only sound to be heard in this awful 
place. We were then rowed to the op- 
posite side, where we were landed. A 
more dreary boating excursion I never 
made — not even when, tide necessitating, 



Ranges of Pits. 39 

I have had to go off in a small boat and 
heavy sea to the Ostend steamer. 

I should have felt still more uncomfort- 
able in my mind had I known at the mo- 
ment that this lake, which I only looked 
on as a saucer of ink, was in reality a fear- 
fully deep pit of brine, filled by fresh water 
springs from the mountains, and afterwards 
thoroughly impregnated with the salt from 
the sides and bottom. After some weeks the 
water is drawn off, and conveyed to the salt 
works by means of miles of wooden pipes. 

From this lake we proceeded down more 
galleries, and through more downward slop- 
ing passages, until we came to a large empty 
pit, which we were told was exactly under 
that filled with water, while yet lower was a 
third. There are, indeed, many ranges of 
these pits in the mine, some full of brine, 
or just emptied, and others where they 



40 Descent of an Inclined Plain. 

are working, which are not shown. We 
had to descend in a queer fashion, which 
convinced us of the utility of our Bloomer 
costume, of which I had hitherto been rather 
sceptical. 

We had to seat ourselves on a steep 
inclined plain, about fifty feet long. Five 
or six of us were packed together, with the 
guide in front, and we glided down with ease 
and velocity, arriving almost without a jerk 
on terra firma. Here we were shown the 
slimy clay or mud, with a thick coating of 
which they daub the floor to render it water- 
tight before the spring water is let in. We 
were requested to pick up any specimens 
of salt we chose. There was a great heap 
of refuse bits, the prettiest of which were 
salmon or sulphur-coloured. 

It is a great mistake expecting to find 
everything inside the salt mines bright and 



Miniature Chapel. 41 

sparkling ; on the contrary, all is dark and 
dismal-looking. In some of the galleries, 
when we held our candle quite close to 
certain spots which the guide pointed out, 
we perceived a faint sparkle where a *vein 
of salt had been cut through. But it is 
all so mixed with earth, that it is neither 
beautiful in hue, nor has it a pretty ap- 
pearance. 

There is a little miniature chapel in the 
mine, decorated with all the best pieces 
they have collected. In a mass they look 
very beautiful. 

We were very glad to ascend a sort of 
ladder out of the empty pit, and still more 
so to seat ourselves on a most peculiar 
railway car, like a bench on wheels. In 
this we found ourselves gliding rapidly down 
the declivity, shooting past side galleries, 
and over points which were all in proper 



42 Exit from the Mine. 

order, for otherwise we must have been 
dashed against the rocky sides of the tunnel. 
At last, joyful sight! like a star in the 
distance shone the blessed light of day, and 
in a *few moments more we stood like owls 
blinking and blinded in the warmth and sun- 
shine. Accidents occur very rarely in these 
mines, as great preoautions are taken. In 
one or two places I noticed the galleries 
were propped up with timbers, but else- 
where everything looked solid and sub- 
stantial. 

The poor Frenchman did not come with 
us. I daresay he had not yet awoke to 
the fact that there were salt mines near, 
as we had left him in the hotel, pur- 
suing flying waiters with painful contor- 
tions and elaborate gymnastic signs. When 
we returned, he was at one of the win- 
dows, making a painfully pre-Raphaelite 



Our French Friend. 43 

sketch (with a very hard pencil on highly 
glazed paper) of a cockney-looking temple 
in an avenue of Dutch-toy firs. 



@r&spi«r III. 



WALK TO KbNIGSEE — GERMAN NAMES OF FLOWERS — BUTTER- 
FLIES— ROW ON THE LAKE THE OBERSEE —BOATS ON 

THE LAKE — OUR FRENCH FRIEND IN SCOTLAND — ISCHL — 
THE DACHSTEIN — EXCURSIONS — HOTEL KREUTZ — NEGLECT 
OF VENTILATION — INTOLERABLE NUISANCE — THE PRO- 
MENADE. 



47 



CHAPTER III. 

A FTER, we had dined at the inn at 
-*-*- Berchtesgaden, we hired a boy to 
carry our carpet-bags, and show us the 
Way from thence to Konigsee. The walk 
is a very pretty one, passing through fir- 
woods for about three miles, and ending 
at the lake, where there is a tidy little 
hotel, in which everything is extremely 
plain, but fresh and clean. The place, 
which is very quiet, is surrounded with 
beautiful scenery, where one could spend 
a summer's month most pleasantly. There 
are many excursions by boat and on 
foot, and everything to , enhance the in- 



48 Wild Flowers. 

terest of a quiet country life. He who 
is fond of botany may wander in search 
of the most lovely wild-flowers ; the en- 
tomologist will find a great variety of 
curious insects ; and the geologist or miner- 
alogist may collect a large mass of valu- 
able specimens. 

The first evening we were there, the 
wood cutters came down from the moun- 
tains, wearing in their Bavarian hats 
great bunches of the scarce and beautiful 
Cypripedium Calceolus — what we call " La- 
dy's Slippers," but the Germans, "Mary's 
Shoe." The common names for some of 
their wild flowers are very pretty. Prim- 
roses are called " Heaven's keys ;" the 
early blue hepatica, " Heaven's stars ; " 
snowdrops are " snowbells ;" pansies, " step- 
mothers," — a name which is thus ingeni- 
ously explained. The large lowest petal, 



Butterflies. 49 

with a spur attached, is the step-mother; 
the two lowest green petals at the back 
of the blossom are her two children ; and 
the three upper petals are her step-chil- 
dren. The two side petals are the chairs 
on which her children sit ; but the three 
step-children have only the two upper petals 
as chairs between them. The lovely little 
deep blue gentian is degraded by the name 
of "cobbler's nails." 

A little wood near our inn was quite 
perfumed by quantities of the small lilac — 
Primula farinosa. The butterflies, too, are 
most beautiful ; and a very great variety 
may be seen fluttering about. There are 
many kinds of the Argus tribe, large and 
small, pale blue and dark brown, almost 
black. I observed one beautiful large white 
butterfly, spotted with black and scarlet, just 
out of the chrysalis. Its wings were heavy 

E 



50 The "Glanvil" 

with the morning dew, as it crept off a 
leaf and settled on my hand. It would 
have been a rare prize for a collector. 
There were also several sorts of Fritillaria, 
the dark green, the silver-washed, and ano- 
ther small sort. 

I always feel grateful, when I see a Fri- 
tillaria butterfly, that I did not live in 
the Dark Ages ! One sort of Fritillaria 
was called " Glanvil, " from a Lady Glan- 
vil, who, in those times, was fond of 
the pursuit of natural history. Her rela- 
tions, at her death, attempted to set aside 
her will, by the assertion that no one 
in her right senses would go in pursuit 
of butterflies. An enlightened barrister, 
however, convinced the judge and jury 
that her conduct proceeded only from a 
laudable desire to study the wonderful 
works of nature, and thus succeeded in 
establishing the validity of her will. 



Boat Excursion. 51 

We took a boat one day from the end 
of the lake, about three miles. The 
shores were very winding and lonely, with 
splendid perpendicular mountains bluff down 
to the water's edge, which was fringed 
with beautiful woods of fir, on the border 
of which we perceived the scarlet rhododen- 
dron hirsutum (rose des Alpes.) Of course 
the boatman obliged us to land, and see 
the waterfall at Konigsbach ; but it is not 
worth the trouble. We firmly resisted 
being taken to the Bartolomaus See; and 
when the boatmen said they were hungry 
and wanted to eat, we told them we were 
also hungry, but wished to go to the end 
of the lake instead of eating. They laugh- 
ed and rowed on. I think their hunger 
was imaginary. At the far end of the 
lake they shewed us some chamois scram- 
bling about the loose rocks far above. 

E 2 



52 Obersee. 

This place is famous for these elegant 
ereatures, as it is strictly preserved for 
the Bavarian king, who never hunts. 

We landed at the end, and walked 
across a bit of rough land to the small 
lake of Obersee, a charming spot, shut in 
by precipices on three sides. At the end 
the dark rocks are overlooked by beauti- 
ful mountain tops crowned with snow, 
from whence the Schrambach falls into 
the lake, which lies dark and gloomy in 
its nest. The only sounds we heard 
were those of the waterfalls, at the fur- 
ther end, faint and distant. Nearer, we 
heard the sound of small stones descend- 
ing in a shower into the water, every 
now and then thrown down by some 
scrambling chamois, far up among the 
loose rocks on the side of the precipice. 
The only living thing besides was an 



Our Boats and Boatmen, 53 

eagle soaring high above our heads, no 
doubt wondering what we were doing in his 
domains. At our feet in the lake lay 
the bleaching skeleton of some deer or 
sheep. The scene altogether might be 
called "a savage but magnificent one." 

We were quite sorry when our sketches 
were finished, and we had to leave it. 
We soon found our boatmen, who had 
forgotten their hunger in a comfortable 
and sound — or rather unsocial — sleep. The 
sound of our steps roused them. Moun- 
taineers and poachers (one of our boat- 
men I had seen return home the day 
before with his gun and a full bag) sleep 
very lightly. We got into our boat and 
were rowed back. 

These boats, which are cut out of the 
trunk of a tree, are detestable. They are 
very heavy and unsafe, the least movement 



54 Boats on the Lake, 

upsetting them. The sides of the lake, by 
the numerous crosses erected on them, show 
how many accidents have terminated fatally. 
Primitive, however, as is the construction of 
these boats, if you can only banish from your 
mind all idea of danger, or forget their un- 
comfortable jerky motion, they are admir- 
ably adapted for seeing the scenery to the 
greatest advantage. The visitors sit near 
the bow, with their backs turned to the 
rowers, who, if there are two, take their 
place in the stern and propel the boat, 
one standing and one sitting. As they 
change places occasionally, one then trem- 
bles for dear life, for in appearance the boats 
are very unsteady. 

We survived these perils, however, and in 
compassion of the hunger they had endured, 
gave the boatmen an extra trinkgeld. We 
found a soldier on furlough to carry our 



Meeting of the Diligences, 55 

bags, and, walking through the pretty- 
woods full of wild flowers, caught the di- 
ligence at Berchtesgaden, and returned to 
Salzburg. The Frenchman was our only 
travelling companion back ; but this time 
we changed places, we being in the coupe 1 \. 
and he having the body of the carriage 
to himself. 

Half way between Berchtesgaden and 
Salzburg, close to the Bavarian frontier, 
the two diligences meet and exchange 
horses. As they had so few passengers 
this day, we were turned out into the 
Salzburg diligence; but the Frenchman 
sat immovable in the interior, not under- 
standing a word, and no doubt wondering 
what strange Custom-house regulations were 
in force here. My companion told him in a 
few words the state of the case, and he 
nimbly alighted. He was boundless in his 



56 A Frenchman in Scotland. 

expressions of gratitude, but we were left 
in wonder how such a traveller could pos- 
sibly ever arrive safe at his destination. 

Beyond the pleasure of seeing new scenes 
and foreign cities, there can be little en- 
joyment in travelling quite alone, especi- 
ally when not understanding a word of 
the language. No wonder he found Scot- 
land difficult to travel in! I can picture 
to myself the mincing polite Frenchman 
in the middle of a turf-smoked kitchen in 
the beautiful Highlands of dear Scotland, 
refusing those savoury national dishes, 
haggis and hotchpotch, and turning in 
disgust from whisky toddy. "Hout, mon! 
but ye're a dainty chiel." 

What would he think of a Sunday in 
Edinburgh, the most dreary and desolate 
festival in the world? Truly he must 
have many gloomy recollections of that 



Journey to IschL 57 

beautiful land, to brood moodily over, and 
to embitter his holiday remembrances. No 
doubt he often shakes his finger wrathfully 
at his crabbed little sketches of lofty Ben 
Lomond and rugged Schehallion. 

From Salzburg we determined to post 
to Ischl, as we were told it was a road 
on which there was a great deal worthy 
of the traveller's observation, The drive 
takes about six hours, and is certainly 
very beautiful. We begin by ascending a 
very long hill (for which we have to take 
on two more horses), directly on leaving 
Salzburg, at a place that rejoices in the 
name of Gniggl. The ascent is not very 
steep in any part, but it is wearisomely 
long. At the top is a small lake, pretty, 
with hills all round. The place appeared 
to be a summer retreat from Salzburg, as 
there were many villas scattered about, 



58 IschL 

which belonged to tradesmen of that city. 

We dined at Hof, and for the first time 
had delicious mountain trout for dinner. 
Soon after leaving Hof, we saw the beau- 
tiful mountains round Ischl rising in the 
distance ; and, after ascending a steep hill, 
again stopped to bait the- horses and have 
some excellent Austrian coffee at the little 
inn at St. Grilgen. 

After that it is a flat drive through 
pretty wooded country, by the side of the 
stream Ischl, till we arrive at the beauti- 
fully situated town of that name. Nature 
has done everything she possibly could for 
Ischl, there is nothing left to be wished 
for. Two beautiful rivers run through the 
town, clear and sparkling, of that wonder- 
ful deep green colour that so many moun- 
tain streams possess. Mountains, rugged, 
picturesque, and magnificent, environ the 



Mountain Scenery. 59 

city. Lower down at their base are 
smaller hills, covered with fir woods and 
forest trees, which contrast agreeably 
with the pleasant emerald green patches 
and the rich pasture lands. There are 
short walks to glens of dark pines, even 
in the summer cool and refreshing, from 
the heavy over-spreading branches, not to 
speak of the mountain torrents that rush 
tossing and tumbling over rocky beds — 
sweeping swiftly past your very feet. 

One may also climb a neighbouring 
hill, and after passing through pleasant 
Alpine pastures, come upon some small 
quiet lake, guarded round by iron-grey 
precipices, on the summits of which, and 
in deep dark nooks, the eternal snow, 
lying hidden from the sun, seems, by its 
cooling aspect, mockingly to allure the tired 
and heated pedestrian vainly trying to find 



60 The Dachstein. 

a shelter from the blazing beams of the 
fierce July sun. 

It requires very little exertion to walk 
far enough to obtain a sight, any clear 
day, of the Dachstein, with its fields of 
sea-green ice and snow, only warming 
into life when the setting sun tints its 
summit with that exquisite rose-blush by 
which snow and limestone mountains seem 
to rival the overhanging clouds in beauty 
and softness of hue. 

For those who are not afraid of a long 
walk and a good climb, Ischl is first-rate 
head-quarters. In whatever direction one 
may set off, he is sure to find charming 
excursions of two or three days' dura- 
tion, to mountains, lakes, or waterfalls. 
And it is not the least advantage that in 
these remote districts there are such clean 
and tidy little inns, at which he may 



Hotel Kreutz, 61 

sleep, and have a good supper of trout 
and potatoes, very often Schnitzel, and 
always good coffee. The black bread is 
rarely liked at first, but after a time one 
finds it extremely good, especially with 
fresh pasture butter. The Gemsfleisch 
(Chamois) is never worth eating, not even 
when shot by the Emperor, as they informed 
us one day at an hotel in Ischl, where 
we usually dined, a recommendation which, 
in their opinion, ought to have given it 
a peculiar relish. We generally dined at the 
Hotel Kreutz, the landlord of which is 
particularly civil and attentive, and where 
the cooking is extremmely good. It is 
far the best hotel in Ischl, and moderate 
in its charges, compared with the Hotel 
Bauer or the Kaiserin Elizabeth. The Hotel 
Bauer is most beautifully situated on the 
Calvariensberg, but the ascent to it is a 



62 Neglect of Ventilation, 

most wearisome pilgrimage, after a hard 
day's walking, or in the heat of the sun. 

It would be a great comfort for English 
travellers if they might have a little more 
fresh air in the table d'h6te rooms. Even 
in summer, with the thermometer as high 
as it can well go, there is sure to be 
some delicate child, or some person with 
a chest complaint, who cannot live with 
fresh air. The doctors in Austria are much 
more enlightened on the subject of venti- 
lation than the people themselves ; and 
most of them now recommend attention to 
its salutary rules. It is amazing, however, 
how unenlightened many even of the edu- 
cated classes are on this all-important sub- 
ject. Women may be constantly seen walk- 
ing for hours on a promenade, with a 
low dress and short sleeves, only covering 
their arms and neck with the thinnest tulle. 



Over-heated Apartments. 63 

Yet directly they come into a room they 
cannot bear a breath of air, and sit in a 
close, unhealthy atmosphere, which makes 
them white and sickly-looking; while the 
children are always delicate and half-grown. 
What indeed can be expected from people 
who in winter never open a window even 
for a few moments, to renew the air in 
their apartments; and, what is worse, di- 
rectly the first bracing frost makes itself 
felt, cram every aperture in their houses, 
every crack and cranny, with moss, and 
live for five months of the year in the 
stifling fumes of an over-heated stove. 

With regard to the table d'hote, added 
to the horrible closeness of the room, where 
thirty or forty people are dining, is the 
perpetual smell of tobacco smoke, which 
is enough to make one loathe bad cigars 
for ever. It really ought to be insisted 



64 Smoking in the Table oVHote. 

on that the hours for smoking, which are 
usually printed in large letters in most of 
the table d'hote rooms, should be adhered 
to. Many people have a great dislike to 
tobacco smoke ; and I for one should never 
get used to eating any meal with clouds 
of nicotian vapour floating around my head, 
and communicating its not very attractive 
flavour, and exceedingly disagreeable taste, 
to everything with which it comes in 
contact. '• 

One day two Prussians were sitting at 
our table, smoking such strong tobacco, 
that we had to leave the room. Next 
day we asked the civil landlord to place 
us at a table where there was no smoking. 
He took us to one at which two gentle- 
men were sitting. " They are English," 
he said, " and I am sure will not smoke 
when ladies are dining." So we sat down 



Guest Lists. 65 

and began our dinner contentedly. Pre- 
sently began the t( Englishmen " — 

" How did you relish your chicken, Gene- 
ral?" 

" I calculate, Colonel, that our stiffish walk 
to-day banged any in our little campaign," 
&c, &c. 

Americans abound in Ischl ; but Jews more 
than any other nation. It is said that more 
than half the visitors are of Hebrew origin. 
From the " Guest Lists," unless the name 
of the nation follows that of the visitor, 
it is impossible to guess his country. Such 
wonderful mistakes are made with the 
names and qualifications of the visitors ! 
For instance, we observed such entries as 
" Miss Brown and daughter ;" the " Rev. 
General Smith," &c. My name was put 
down "Essen." 

For those who think scenery a bore, there 

F 



6§ The Promenade. 

is a pretty promenade by the side of the 
Traun, where, under the shelter of the trees, 
you can eat ices and drink coffee, or parade 
up and down in most elaborate toilettes, to 
the sound of a very second-rate band, and 
enjoy yourself quite as much as if you were 
in Vienna. 

In the dust and chatter one quite forgets 
that he is in the midst of some of the most 
perfect of God's creations, untouched and 
unimpaired by those works which in other 
countries, where life is more stirring and 
active, are rendered necessary by the de- 
mands of manufacturing industrial, or com- 
mercial progress. I believe there were many 
people at Ischl who never went beyond the 
promenade ; but morning, noon, and even- 
ing, sauntered up and down, displaying to 
the envious gaze of their fellow-loungers, 
dresses of lace and tulle only fit for a ball- 



Travel-stained Englishmen. 67 

room, or, if gentlemen, equally splendid uni- 
forms, not to speak of thin boots with heels 
of surpassing height, or dress-shoes with 
enormous rosebuds. 

Through this elegant crowd some dusty 
travel-stained Englishmen might occasionally 
be seen making their way, with that haughty 
and independent bearing which they so often 
assume among foreigners. They looked 
strong, sturdy, and manly, in their home- 
spun or frieze suits, thick boots, and burnt 
hands and faces, as, carrying their knap- 
sacks and fishing-rods, they went to, or re- 
turned from, their sport. 



f2 



©fljapttr IV. 



BEGGARS IN ISCHL — DANCE AT THE CASINO — HUNGARIAN 
PRIDE — THE COURT AT ISCHL — THE IMPERIAL FAMILY — 
THE CLERGY AND THE NEW LAWS— IMPERIAL FAVOUR TO 
HUNGARY — WILD FLOWERS — CHEAP FRUIT. 



71 



CHAPTER IV. 

TN Ischl beggars abound. In the streets, 
-*■ at the doors of the hotels, at all the 
cafes and restaurants, you are sure to 
meet them. They knock at your sitting- 
room door, or find their way to your 
kitchen for broken food. They don't care, 
luckily, to go very far from the fashionable 
crowd, and the promenade is their favourite 
resort, though there are notices in every 
walk forbidding their entrance. 

I have often been amused at their impu- 
dence. I have seen a regular old stager seat- 
ed under a tree with a board over his head, 
inscribed not with the heart-melting appeal, 



72 Beggars, 

"Pity the poor blind," or, "lam starving," 
but the apparently peremptory police ordin- 
ance, "Begging is here strictly forbidden." 
It is no use informing them politely that 
you are not disposed to give, or that you 
have no small change ; the only thing that 
has any effect on them is a quick decisive 
Austrian "Marsch." 

They must make an excellent living dur- 
ing the season. Few people refuse to give 
them a kreuzer, and they are never too 
proud to accept this very small coin. The 
amount collected during the day, even 
in this insignificant coin, the value of 
which is so trifling that it has no equi- 
valent in English money, must generally 
be a good sum. Besides money, they 
drive a very good trade in broken victuals. 
An acquaintance of mine, who had to visit 
professionally at a small inn of third-rate 



The Casino. 73 

class, found one room filled with fragments 
of bread of all sorts. On inquiring what 
was the object of such a collection, he was 
told that this was a receiving-room for the 
scraps beggars brought in exchange for 
"schnaps." The people of the house, it 
appears, kept a great many pigs, which 
they fed entirely on this broken bread. 

Every week at Ischl there was a public 
dance at the Casino (admittance fifty kreu- 
zers !). This entertainment must have been 
very pleasant to the select few who kept 
exclusively together at the upper end of 
the room. Of course, there was a great 
mixture of classes in the salle, and every 
one went in bonnets or hats, which, as 
the ball began at eight, and ended at 
twelve, was rather absurd. This foreign 
custom, too, is dreadfully fatiguing. Di- 
rectly you stop with your partner to rest 



74 Hungarian Pride* 

in the valse or galop, any gentleman in 
the room may come up and ask you for 
a turn; so that, however fond of dancing 
a girl may be, it is extremely hard work. 
From my quiet corner of the room I no- 
ticed this unreasonable exaction, and pitied 
some of the young dancers of my own 
party, who declared they were half dead! 
I was much amused watching one Hun- 
garian gentleman of our acquaintance in 
the mazurka, a dance on which he parti- 
cularly prided himself. We had for some 
time agreed he was dreadfully conceited, 
but this evening his self-estimation passed 
all bounds, as in his national dress, with 
his head thrown back and his eyes half 
closed, he performed a few steps languidly 
under the centre chandelier. Then, to all 
appearance suddenly awaking to a sense 
of what society required from such a splen- 



The Court. 75 

did specimen of his glorious nation, he 
would whirl his partner breathlessly round, 
or dash frantically from one end of the 
room to the other. 

I was told an anecdote illustrative of 
Hungarian pride. The incident occurred at 
a ball at Pressburg last winter. A young 
lady, who thought herself demeaned by 
having for a vis-a-vis a young officer who 
was not a noble, hardly allowed him to 
touch the tip of her little finger when she 
passed him in the quadrille. The second 
time, thinking even this slight favour too 
great a condescension, she held him the 
corner of her pocket-handkerchief! He 
coolly took it, used it, and returned it to 
her ! Not a gentlemanly thing to do, but 
it served her quite right. 

Ischl was much enlivened by the pre- 
sence of the Court, but rumour says the 



76 Imperial Family. 

Empress was so disgusted with the inso- 
lent way that people stared at her — even 
through their opera-glasses — that she will 
never go there again. The little Prince 
Imperial was always out walking with an 
officer, his governor, no matter what the wea- 
ther was; and in this, as in other nursery 
arrangements, the royal children are much 
better managed than most German families. 
They have an English nurse, and the little 
baby has a long white robe — not the 
dreadful mummy bandages in which most 
Austrian babies are packed and folded — a 
fearful remnant of barbarism, which, I be- 
lieve, is now almost entirely confined to 
the peasants and lower orders; and it will 
be in the interests of humanity when it 
is abolished among them also. 

We were walking one day in a wood 
two or three miles from Ischl, when, on 



Benevolence of the Prince. 77 

the other side of the river, at a little 
distance, we saw one of the royal carriages, 
which stopped, and the little Prince and 
his governor alighted, the carriage being 
sent away. They had not gone many 
yards before they met a poor family who 
begged of them. A few words passed be- 
tween the Prince and his governor, and 
the carriage was hailed. The footman 
came running back, and taking out his 
purse, handed some change to the poor 
people. There had been evidently a dearth 
of small money in the royal purse, but a 
good feeling was shown in thus taking 
the trouble to send for the money for the 
poor wanderers. It will be a great pity 
if it is true that the Court will not come 
again to Ischl; for when they were al- 
lowed to pass their time quietly, they 
seemed to enjoy themselves so much. 



78 The Empress, 

On the birthday of the little Princess 
Gisela, the Emperor came purposely from 
Vienna to spend it with his family, and 
they were seen during the day at a small 
" restauration " on the hills, taking coffee. 
Luckily there were very few people about, 
and they were able to enjoy themselves 
in the luxury of solitude. Another day, as 
we were walking in a retired part of the 
promenade, we met an officer with a lady 
leaning on his arm. If it had not been 
for the large wolf-hound that generally 
accompanies the Empress, we should not 
at first have recognized Her Majesty and 
the Emperor. She is extremely pretty, 
with a very bright, sweet smile, and a 
slight, graceful figure. She was always 
dressed with great taste, and this day 
wore a pale grey dress, hat, and boots, 
the two former trimmed with fringes of 



The Emperor and the Archduke. 79 

little mother-of-pearl Venetian shells. 

Much more state was kept up by the 
father and mother of the Emperor, who 
lived next door to us, and never moved 
without attendants. Once only, during the 
visit of the King of Saxony, we met His 
Majesty and the Archduke walking per- 
fectly unattended, and mixing unrecognized 
among the crowd, composed principally of 
foreigners. I never could look on the 
Archduchess without feeling a deep com- 
passion and pity for the mother whose 
strong, ambitious disposition and ultramon- 
tane views had been so deeply engrafted 
in her beloved but unfortunate son, whose 
last words were, "Do not bind my eyes, 
or else I cannot see my mother's spirit." 
What the heart can bear, and not only 
overlive, but even learn to enjoy life and 
its pleasures once more! Only a year 



80 Genealogical Relations. 

since the echo of the regicidical volley 
which carried death to the heart of the brave 
Emperor Maximilian excited a thrill of 
horror in every civilized land ; and yet even 
in his father's Court you now look in vain 
for one outward sign of mourning for this 
beloved but unfortunate scion of the House 
of Hapsburg. 

The genealogical relations of the Royal 
Family of Austria are a most bewildering 
problem to a foreigner, especially when one 
hears people talking casually of two Empe- 
rors and three Empresses, besides the poor 
Empress Charlotte, and the father and mo- 
ther of the Kaiser. As far as entourage and 
Court show go, there are virtually three 
Emperors and five Empresses, besides a 
Royal Family of twenty-four Archdukes 
and Archduchesses! 

The ex-Emperor Ferdinand, and his Em- 



Imperial Palaces. 81 

press, keep up a dreary ecclesiastical state 
in the beautiful old palace in the Hradschiu 
at Prague. The Empress Caroline, widow 
of Kaiser Franz, lives at Salzburg. In 1867, 
however, she turned out to accommodate 
the Austrian and French Emperors, when 
they met there — a meeting of which the 
world talked so much, though eventually 
it proved to be little more than a friendly 
visit, in a convenient and most picturesque 
city. The poor widowed empress of Kaiser 
Max is never likely to return to the scene 
of her early days of happy married life; 
and the Archduke and Archduchess Franz 
Karl, the father and mother of Kaiser Franz 
Josef, live in different royal residences dur- 
ing the year. 

Scarcely a large town in Austria has 
not an Imperial Palace ; and certainly every 
city has one, if not two. Imperial hunt- 

G 



82 Austrian Clergy. 

ing and shooting boxes abound where- 
ever there is an eligible site to erect one! 
There is, indeed, no want of royal resi- 
dences ; and the incomes for so many- 
crowned and uncrowned heads must be 
very considerable. The Emperor appears 
to be much liked, everyone concurring in 
the opinion that he is thoroughly good- 
hearted. He is inordinately fond, however, 
of sport and pleasure, and has all the pre- 
judice which is so marked amongst the 
nobles in Austria in favour of high birth 
and of the priests. It must have cost him 
a hard struggle to sign the "Consession- 
ellen Gesetze." 

Already the clergy of Austria are rising 
up like a swarm of angry bees; and not 
only is their buzzing heard, but their stings 
are felt throughout the length and breadth 
of the land. There must for a time be a 



Meetings and Discussions. 83 

sharp struggle, and then things will calm 
down; but at present, in almost every 
city and town of Austria, meetings of the 
clergy are held. Those, however, who are 
enlightened and liberal, plead illness as an 
excuse for keeping away from these use- 
less discussions ; and those who feel hope- 
less and angry, denounce from their pulpit 
the wickedness of the new laws. They 
go, too, among their people, and working 
on the credulity of the women, tell them 
that the marriage ceremony must always 
be a sacrament. Congregations of these 
sympathetic beings leave the churches in 
tears, having been assured by the priests 
in their sermons that the civil law of mar- 
riage will not be binding, and that now 
men will have as many wives as they 
please ! In future we shall no longer hear 
of those absurd barriers to marriages be- 

G2 



84 Mixed Marriages. 

tween Protestants and Roman Catholics ; 
and the children of such mixed unions will 
be brought up in whatever religion the 
parents themselves choose. In short, Pro- 
testants will soon cease to be looked upon 
in Austria as the wicked heretics they have 
hitherto been considered; and as the sim- 
plicity and purity of their religion begins 
to be understood, it will be welcomed by 
a people to most of whom it has either 
been wilfully misrepresented, or shrouded 
in dark mystery, but in whose minds 
more advanced, liberal, and independent 
views are now beginning to dawn. The 
schools, too, are to be taken from the sole 
and exclusive supervision of the Roman 
Catholic priests, and to be placed under 
Government inspectors. 

Thus Austria, which was the only coun- 
try to sign the Concordat, has at length 



Concessions to Hungary. 85 

shaken it off; and it is a subject of much 
comment in all parts of Germany, that of 
the four great powers, France, Austria, 
Italy, and Spain, who were the chief sup- 
porters of the Papal sway, only the first 
remains true ! Austria has broken the Con- 
cordat, Italy has again and again risen in 
arms against the Pope, and Spain, by throw- 
ing off the yoke of a bigoted Queen, has 
now inaugurated the era of its spiritual 
freedom. 

Just now every one in Austria is jealous 
of the Hungarians, and doubly jealous of 
the favour shown them by the Emperor and 
Empress. The latter especially is sup- 
posed to have a strong leaning towards 
Hungary, and the most ridiculous stories 
are afloat relative to her dislike to Vienna 
and the Viennese. One absurd story, to ■ 
the effect that when Her Majesty entered 



86 Austrian Jealousy. 

her box at the opera, she always went in 
backwards, as she did not wish to bow to the 
audience, only shows how easily a jealous 
people can invent imaginary causes of discon- 
tent. It is natural enough that the Royal 
Family should be desirous of showing atten- 
tion to a state which, after so many years of 
open rebellion and warfare, has now manifest- 
ed every disposition to lay down the sword, 
and take up the plough and the navvy's spade, 
with the view of developing the splendid 
natural riches of that fertile land. Glorious, 
however, as is the object proposed both by 
the Emperor and by the Hungarian people, it 
is none the less true that not only the mo- 
ther state of Austria, but the equally richly 
endowed sister land of Bohemia, are angry 
and jealous at the concessions granted to 
a country whose allegiance has been only re- 
cently recovered, and wonder why for them, 



Wild Flowers. 87 

also, no fatted calf is killed, and no rich robe 
brought forth. 

For those who are fond of wild flowers, 
there is never-ceasing occupation and amuse- 
ment at Ischl. A rich collection might be 
made of dried specimens with very little 
trouble. In many places the banks used to 
be quite covered with the small dark pink 
cyclamen, which perfumed the air for a long 
distance with its delicate scent. Seven sorts 
of gentians I found in the neighbourhood, 
some most lovely, like small sapphire stars ; 
others of that large deep blue sort which 
we have in our gardens in England. One I 
observed was very like the latter species, only 
that it grew in clusters, ' on stems a foot 
high. A very large chocolate-coloured one, 
spotted with black, also attracted my notice. 
The rest were smaller, one being like our 
common wild English gentian, and the others 



88 Apricots and Cherries. 

dark indigo blue, and insignificant-looking 
by the side of the more beautiful kinds. 
There were many specimens of the rarer 
ferns, such as polypodium calcarium, and holly 
ferns growing in abundance. Several sorts 
of the graceful little pyrola, and numbers 
of other beautiful blossoms that were new 
to me, and of whose names even I was 
ignorant, will reward the pleasant labours 
of those who are eager to explore the Flora 
of the Austrian dominions. 

In July the town was inundated with 
sellers of apricots and cherries. Nearly 
every cottage for miles round has its 
cherry orchard, and is covered with apri- 
cot trees, which this year were load- 
ed with their delicious fruit, in such 
abundance that they were sold absurdly 
cheap. Figs were scarce and dear, at two- 
pence a piece; but mountain straw- 



Sketching. 89 

berries were abundant at the same price 
for a soup-plate fall. The wild rasp- 
berries were a failure this year, owing to 
the dry summer. However, they are consi- 
dered feverish ! How lovely the little 
patches of hot rocky banks look far up 
in the mountain fastnesses, covered with 
their carpet of the graceful runners of the 
wild strawberries, loaded with ripe scarlet 
fruit ! The scene would make a much 
prettier sketch than many of the everlast- 
ing flower and fruit subjects that we see 
year after year in our London exhibitions, 
though I have often lamented that in the 
foreground of a landscape it would look 
decidedly too pre-Raphaelite. 

Now I am on the subject of sketching, 
let me strongly recommend to travelling 
amateurs the new "slow-drying," moist 
water-colours, sold in tubes by Newman, 



90 Newman 9 s Water-colours. 

for out-door sketching, especially under a 
very hot sun. They are invaluable, and 
extremely pleasant to work with. 



<8f{rap;Ur V. 



WALK TO THE EETTENBACH MUHLE — ACCIDENT TO A RUSSIAN 
PRINCE AND HIS SON — A LOVE-STORY — HALLSTADT — 
DEFORMED PEOPLE AND IDIOTS — VISIT TO OBERTRAUN — 
JOURNEY INTO STYRIA— THE EINSPANNER— ALT-AUSSEE. 



93 



CHAPTER V. 

nnHIS year has been painfully marked 
•*■ in Ischl by several melancholy acci- 
dents, which have at different times cast 
a gloom over the place. One of the first 
walks I took was to the Rettenbach Miihle 
—-a favourite resort from Ischl when a few 
people can be found to tear themselves 
away from the ceaseless treadmill of the 
Esplanade. It is a pretty walk by the 
side of a stream which, falling from the 
mountains near Aussee, runs through a 
beautifully-wooded glen, and falls into the 
Traun at Ischl. Strong men and children 
are able to accomplish this expedition on 



94 Eettenbach Mithle. 

foot ; but as the " Muhle " is three quar- 
ters of an hour distant from the town, 
ladies are carried in chairs by porters — 
for in Ischl scarcely one of the women 
ever walked even the length of the Pro- 
menade. 

Arrived at the mill, you can have some 
very good coffee and cakes, or the excel- 
lent Austrian fancy breads. It is a lovely, 
quiet little spot ; and just above the mill 
the stream comes down from the moun- 
tains in a cascade, bringing with it the 
wood hewn on the slopes above, and 
thrown into the Rettenbach as logs of 
every size and diameter. These are stopped 
by a dam, of which the sluice-gates are 
only occasionally opened, when a good 
body of water is collected, which sends the 
accumulation of logs dashing and rolling 
down the stream into the Traun, where 



Opening of the Sluice-gates. 95 

they are collected for fuel for the salt- 
works. 

Due notice of the opening of the sluice- 
gates is always given, in case anyone 
should be wandering too near the banks, 
and be struck by the falling timber. Fif- 
teen years ago a Russian Prince was 
nearly drowned at this spot, and this 
summer, about a week after my visit to 
the Rettenbach mill, he was again there, 
in company with his wife and son (an 
only child, fourteen years old), and the 
tutor. The Princess was on the bank in 
one of the sedan-chairs, watching her 
husband and son, as they looked for 
pebbles in the bed of the river, in which 
there was very little water. Due notice 
had been given of the opening of the 
sluice-gates, and they were warned to 
leave the rocks, as it was time for the 



96 Sad Catastrophe. 

water to come; but by some extraordinary- 
fatality they only laughed at the warning, 
saying they could all swim. Presently, to 
the horror of the lookers-on, the pent-up 
body of water came sweeping down in a 
torrent, and all three were borne off in a 
moment. The Prince and tutor managed 
to get to the bank, but the father, not see- 
ing his son, dashed again into the roaring 
water, just at the moment when the 
whole fearful weight of logs came thunder- 
ing down. The death of father and son 
must have been instantaneous. The body 
of the former was found that night, but 
the poor boy's not till late next day. 
The appearance of both showed that they 
must have been at once killed by the fall- 
ing timber. 

The feelings of the bereaved wife and 
mother, helplessly sitting by and seeing, 



Accident to Sir Robert Phillimore. 97 

in a moment, her life made desolate for 
ever, are too terrible to think of. The * 
Emperor most kindly begged her at once 
to go to one of his palaces, away from the 
scene of so much misery, and relations and 
friends flocked to her assistance, but it 
was some time before she could be moved. 
By a sad oversight the Prince had made 
no will, so that the poor widow, by the 
laws of Austria, only came in for a small 
portion of his property, and is left compara- 
tively poor. 

The next accident we heard of was to 
a countryman of our own, Sir Robert Philli- 
more, who with his son was staying at the 
Hotel Bauer. They had ascended a hill 
in the neighbourhood, and the walk having 
taken some time more than they expected, 
on their return Sir Robert suggested a 
short cut. When part of the descent had 

H 



98 Shadow on our Household. 

been accomplished, he fell, and rolled down 
into the darkness. With considerable diffi- 
culty his son found out his perilous position, 
but had to wait some time before he could 
make his cries for help heard by the wood- 
men. Sir Robert was much shaken and 
bruised, and for several days after was con- 
fined to his room. 

In our own little household the dark 
shadow of death cast its gloom over these 
bright summer days. We had noticed that 
the pretty and tidy Austrian girl who waited 
on us grew gradually less cheerful and 
bright. Her large dark eyes often showed 
unmistakeable symptoms that she had been 
indulging in violent fits of crying. If we 
inquired what was the matter, she invaria- 
bly replied, " Oh I it is nothing — nothing." 
Had the landlady scolded her? "Oh! no." 
Was she ill ? " No." At last, one morn- 



Death of Fanny s Lover. 99 

ing, after having brought in our break- 
fast, and set it down, she caught hold of 

C by the arm, and burst forth with a 

torrent of tears. What was it? we asked, 
rather amazed at this unexpected outburst 
of grief. "Oh! he is dead! — he is dead!" 
was all she could sob out. 

After she had calmed down a little, she 
told us, with tears still flowing from her 
eyes, that it was her lover. He had been 
a trumpeter in a cavalry regiment, and had 
long suffered from lung disease (that fear- 
fully prevalent malady in Austria). In the 
first spring days he had been granted leave 
to come home to his family in Ischl to be 
taken care of. To get well again, as they 
hoped; to die, as it proved. Poor Fanny! 
the red eyes and sad looks for which she 
would not account, were the results of her 
sad visits to her dying lover. She had 

h2 



100 Memento mori, 

been to see him the evening before, and 
they had promised to send for her in the 
night if he was worse ; but the summons had 
come very softly, and the young soldier had 
passed away in his sleep. 

A family of Prussians were recently hasti- 
ly summoned away by the intelligence that 
a brother had been thrown from his carriage 
and seriously hurt. Before they got far on 
their journey another telegram reached them 
to say he was dead. A foreign doctor in 
one of the hotels also dropped down dead, 
and a Count of Austria died from a cancer in 
the mouth, caused only by a burn from a 
cigar. In short, funeral processions were 
constantly passing, and the funeral march 
was frequently heard. In such a small place 
it seemed very dreary, and I was extremely 
glad to start with a friend on a little expe- 
dition into Styria. 



Hallstadt 101 

We went the first day to Hallstadt, not 
very far from Ischl; but the heat was too 
great to allow of much travelling. Hall- 
stadt is a very picturesque little village, 
perched on ledges of rock, and built down 
so close to the edge of the lake, that the 
base of most of the dwellings terminates in 
a boat-house; boats here taking the place 
of carts and wheel-barrows. Hallstadt is 
nearly spoilt by a very ugly new church, 
and by crowds of tourists, who swarm in all 
the little inns. These visitors enjoy the 
views in sedan-chairs, or feed the fish in the 
lake from the numeroua summer-houses that 
the inn gardens contain. 

If the views of lake, mountain, and water- 
fall are lovely about Hallstadt, most certain- 
ly the inhabitants are not ; and it makes 
one's heart sick to see the number of idiots, 
horribly deformed people, and dwarfs that 



102 Melancholy Incident. 

you meet at every turn. It is perfectly ap- 
palling to think that only about every third 
person is like a rational, full-grown human 
being. A gentleman whom I met there, 
who had travelled far and wide, said in all 
his journeys he had never seen such a stricken 
place, except in some of the leper towns in 
Sweden. It really seems as if the curse 
of some fearful sentence was on Hallstadt. 
We took a boat from Hallstadt, and were 
rowed over the lake to a cluster of cottages, 
I believe called Obertraun. On the way 
we were shown a cross erected by the side 
of the lake, where a boat full of holiday 
peasants was upset, and all in it drowned, by 
the sudden descent of one of those mountain 
hurricanes which make the Hallstadt one of 
the most dangerous lakes for boats in all 
Austria. Tourists may therefore rejoice over 
the small steamer which plies several times 



Obertraun. 



103 



a day between Hallstadt and the two land- 
ing places at the north-end. 

When we landed at Obertraun we had to 
wait for a conveyance, as all the village was 
haymaking. Our Jehu was a highly respect- 
able and no doubt opulent farmer, who came 
somewhat unwillingly from his work, and 
harnessed his good stout horse into his Ein- 
spanner cart. At first we went along rather 
moodily, the farmer casting regretful glances 
back at his merry band of hay-makers. 

Presently, however, a sudden grip in the 
road sent us all with a bound into the air, 
and made us both burst out with a hearty 
laugh, in winch the farmer joined, and we 
immediately fraternised. He told us he had 
given twenty pounds for his horse, such a 
capital, strong beast, with a glossy black 
coat. At the end of the journey we were 
quite sorry to part, and he agreed at some 



104 Trip into Styria. 

future time to make a long trip into Styria 
with us. 

The first hour of our drive was through 
orchard-meadows, only a narrow strip, with 
walls of lofty mountains on each side ; and 
before us, at the end of the glen, a still 
more forbidding-looking precipice of dark 
rock. Where the outlet to this valley, which 
was to lead us into Styria was, we could 
not imagine. At last, almost over our heads, 
I espied a mountain road along a ledge of 
rock. 

" Impossible I" said my companion. 

" There is no other way out that I can 
see," 1 meekly answered. 

And, accordingly, we had not gone much 
further before our farmer drew up, and said 
he must beg us to walk only a quarter 
of an hour. Accordingly, out we got, very 
loth, for it was twelve o'clock, and the sun 



Mountain Torrent, 105 

was blazing down with a beating heat that 
was quite overpowering. 

Of course the road perversely went on the 
sunny side of the glen ; while on the other 
side we could see, through openings of the 
luxuriant, magnificent trees, great patches 
of snow still lying on the ground. It looked 
so temptingly cold, and seemed so near, 
that one fancied he could almost reach 
over and cool his hands in it. At the 
bottom of the glen, the mountain torrent 
tossed and foamed along, bearing the fir 
logs, which men were busily engaged in 
cutting on the tops of the mountain. 

About half way up we passed a slide, 
where watchers were stationed to warn 
those above when carts or passengers were 
passing. Before us toiled horse and farmer, 
dragging the light cart over rough rocks 
and broken ground, which looked more like 



106 The Einspanner, 

the dry bed of a torrent than the " good 
road" which the faithless "Murray" had 
promised ns. However, when the quarter 
of an hour had increased to nearly three, 
we had reached the summit, and were thank- 
ful to seat ourselves once more in the Eins- 
panner. This is a most wonderful light 
carriage quite peculiar to Austria, and one 
on which the people pride themselves ex- 
tremely. It consists of any sort of light 
carriage, with a pole instead of shafts; 
and the one horse is always harnessed to 
the near side of the pole. It has a most 
unpleasant appearance, suggesting the idea 
that the fellow horse had suddenly dropped 
down dead, and been left at the road-side; 
or that the proprietors of the equipage had 
started in life with more exalted notions 
than they were afterwards able to realize. 
It is in vain to ask why the cart is so 



Alt-Aussee. 107 

constructed, for they will give you twenty 
answers, and each with as little common 
sense as the others. They will tell you 
that the roads are so bad, that the horse 
goes better by the side; that it is easier 
to guide; that the pole is more convenient 
for mountain travelling than the shafts ; 
and so on. I can only say that it is diffi- 
cult to imagine the invention of anything 
so awkward and ugly. 

After our tedious ascent, the road was 
shady and delightful, passing under fir- 
woods the whole way to Aussee, which is 
a great salt-working place. We drove on 
to Alt-Aussee, and took up our quarters at 
the hotel on the lake. Here we found 
very rough accommodation; and, moreover, 
it was enormously dear. We were abun- 
dantly repaid, however, by the glorious view 
of the glaciers and snowy peaks of the 



108 View of the Dachstein. 

Dachstein, seen at some distance over fields 
and hills of fir-wood, with the beautiful 
lake of Alt-Aussee as a foreground. We 
ought to have gone on and seen two other 
small lakes, which are well worth visiting; 
but it really was so overpoweringly hot, 
that we could not find any pleasure in 
either walking or boating (the only means 
by which the upper lakes are reached.) We 
remained, therefore, quietly at Alt-Aussee, 
watching the bright sunshine and green 
shadows on the far-away snow-fields of the 
splendid Dachstein. 



CSffrapin* VI 



EBENSEE — THE INN AND THE WATER-MILL — KING AND QUEEN 
OF HANOVER— THE SALT-WORKS — PROCESS OF MANUFAC- 
TURE — CONDITION OF THE WORKMEN — HERR VON PRIN- 
ZIGER — MUMMY CHILDREN — A SUGGESTION TO BARON VON 
BEUST. 



Ill 



CHAPTER VI. 



rpHE Lake of Ebensee, or Traunsee, or 
* Gmiindenersee, as it is variously called, 
is only two hours from Ischl, and a few 
days at the little village inn of the Post 
at Ebensee pass very pleasantly. The 
scenery is beautiful, and comprises all one 
can desire for the perfection of a quiet moun- 
tain landscape. There are no grand and over- 
powering beauties like those of the Tyrol or 
Switzerland, but the town is picturesque — a 
dark green lake, and chains of fine moun- 
tains closing round on all sides. The inn, 
too, is clean and comfortable, especially in 
hot weather, when you can dine and sup 



112 Inn at Ebensee. 

out of doors, thereby avoiding the over- 
powering fumes of bad tobacco, which here, 
as everywhere in Austria, destroys all com- 
fort in the public rooms. 

I must especially warn all my friends, if 
they can, to avoid room No. 1#. We 
arrived on Sunday morning, and found the 
inn very foil. There was only one room 
to be had, to which we were shown. It 
was a very large one, nicely furnished, 
very clean, and with seven windows at 
least. We took possession of it gladly, and 
after going to church, walked about the 
town. 

In the afternoon, after dinner, we rowed 
across the lake, and took a walk to a very 
pretty waterfall in the midst of a thick 
pine-wood. We thus had had a good deal 
of walking, and by ten o'clock were glad to 
go to bed and to sleep. About three in 



Room to be avoided. 113 

the morning (I know it seemed to me as 
if I had only just fallen asleep), there be- 
gan the most fearful and distracting noise 
exactly at our bed-heads, which roused us 
with a start from our peaceful slumbers. 
The sound was a combination of groaning, 
creaking, grinding, sawing, and splashing, 
forcibly suggesting to us the most unplea- 
sant truth that we were next-door neigh- 
bours to a saw and flour mill, turned by 
one of the mountain streams. In the hot 
summer weather, the noise coming through 
the seven open windows, and continuing 
all day without intermission, and nearly 
all night, was really distracting. Millers do 
not leave off work when other well-regu- 
lated establishments cease from the labours 
of the day, but carry on their noisy opera- 
tions far into the night by the light of 
tallow candles. In consequence of the an- 

I 



114 Royal Family of Hanover, 

noying uproar we could hardly hear each 
other speak. I found out afterwards that 
the room is well known to experienced 
travellers, and those who know the country, 
and by such prudently avoided. Except 
for this, the inn was very comfortable. It 
was under the active superintendence of a 
good bustling landlady, who was every- 
where at once, and yet never too busy 
to answer any questions. 

When we arrived first, there were stand- 
ing close to the inn three open carriages, 
with the Koyal scarlet liveries of England. 
These contained the King and Queen of 
Hanover, and the two Princesses, their 
daughters, with their attendants. They 
put up at the Post, and had dinner in the 
courtyard in front. The people about be- 
haved so well, no crowding or staring. 
Only on the other side of the courtyard 



Royal Family of Hanover. 115 

a group of peasants in their Sunday clothes 
assembled in breathless silence, to watch 
a King and Queen eat their dinner. We 
met them afterwards in our walk, and^could 
not but look with admiration on the Queen, 
who had given the Prussians, in 1866, more 
trouble than all the other crowned heads put 
together, and who clung to her lost king- 
dom and home with a determination which, 
though useless, was wonderfully brave. The 
King looks very old for his years. His 
hair is perfectly white, and he is very bald, 
but his figure is quite erect, and he has a 
proud bearing. The two Princesses are tall 
and pretty, and extremely graceful. 

The Royal Family of Hanover were stay- 
ing at the Chateau of Ebenzweier, which be- 
longed to the Archduke Maximilian. The 
German papers said that the king was ad- 
vised to leave Vienna during the rifle meet- 

i2 



116 Salt- Works at Ebensee. 

ing, as the Hanoverians yet delight in 
showing their loyalty and affection to the 
sovereign whom they still long for, and in 
these times of peace all demonstrations are 
to be avoided. I suppose it was to further 
this excellent object that the soldiers in 
Vienna formed three deep round the Lancers 
at the People's Ball after the shooting fes- 
tival. 

We had a very kind friend at Ebensee in 
Herr von Prinzinger, the government mana- 
ger of the salt-works there. These works 
are very large, and employ a great number 
of hands. The first salt-works in these 
parts were erected at Hallstadt, when the 
demand became so great that they were 
soon found too small. Others were then 
constructed at Ischl, and when more were 
required, these at Ebensee were built. The 
salt is run in a liquid state from Hallstadt by 



Taps and Tanks. Ill 

pipes along the mountains to Ischl and 
Ebensee— a process which is found cheaper 
and more economical, as respects fuel and 
carriage, than the enlargement of the original 
works at the mine's mouth at Hallstadt would 
be. 

We had been over the salt-mines at Berch- 
tesgaden, and were also very anxious to see 
these salt-works, which Herr von Prinzinger 
at once offered to show us over. We were 
first taken to the top of the high building, 
and shown the taps and tanks into which the 
brine runs by a clever contrivance. The 
liquid, as it falls, marks off on a dial the 
number of measures filled in the day. An 
overlooker has charge of these taps, and if 
one fails running, it is traced back to the 
fault in the wooden pipes that convey the 
brine from the mine. 

Very often, when taking a walk along the 



118 Reservoirs. 

footpath between Hallstadt and Ischl, or 
Ischl and Ebensee, we came across a loose 
plank lying in the ground. If this was 
raised, we could see the wooden pipes run- 
ning under the road on which we were walk- 
ing. These places are for the convenience of 
the men who inspect the pipes to see if re- 
pairs are wanting. There are also at inter- 
vals small wooden huts, where they keep 
their tools, and a supply of such materials as 
are necessary in their work. The brine runs 
from the tanks and measures at the top of 
the building into very large reservoirs of 
iron, firmly fixed in frames of strong brick- 
work over ovens in which wood is burnt. 
These fires are kept constantly supplied with 
logs of wood, and the water above is main- 
tained at boiling pitch. 

At each end of these reservoirs stand 
four or five men, on a raised platform, to 



Shovellers. 



119 



bring them within three feet of the edge 
of the caldron of boiling brine. They are 
each provided with a long-handled shovel, 
with which they lift the salt from the bot- 
tom, and throw it down wooden troughs 
into long rows of pails which stand about 
six feet below. The shovellers are followed 
step by step by men with very long-han- 
dled wooden rakes, with which they keep 
drawing the salt from the centre towards 
the edges, where it is more easy to reach. 
Men with wooden shoes stand in the pails 
below, and, as the hot salt is poured 
in, stamp it down. I may here remark 
that the shoes are scrupulously clean, and 
kept entirely for this work. Herr von Prin- 
zinger significantly pointed out to our no- 
tice a row of the ordinary shoes left in- 
side the door till the work of their pro- 
prietors was over. 



120 Waste Salt. 

The pails, when filled, are earned to hot 
closets, where they are kept till the salt 
is perfectly dried, when the loaves are 
turned ont and piled up in a large store- 
house. It was curious to see the incrus- 
tations of Glauber salt which ooze out, 
and form large masses, after the salt is 
cold, and even stored — sometimes quite 
covering the loaves with all sorts of fan- 
tastic incrustations. None of the salt is 
what we should consider first quality in 
England, being a dirty yellowish white, 
and certainly never possessing the pungent 
taste to which we are accustomed. Much 
is also thrown about and spilled in the 
process of making, which is considered very 
clumsy and defective. 

As salt is a royal monopoly in Austria, 
and it would not answer to allow even the 
poor people to buy refuse at a cheaper rate, 



Payment of the Workmen. 121 

the waste salt is mixed with some prepara- 
tion of iron, which colours it bright orange, 
when the peasant will no longer buy it. 
This does not injure it, however, for the 
royal cattle, or deer, are fed with this 
mixed in their food. 

The ovens of this vast building are on 
the ground floor, and men are kept con- 
tinually employed feeding them with huge 
logs of wood, as they burn constantly for 
ten days at once. At the end of that time 
the fires are let out, and the pan above is 
allowed to cool, when it is cleared out, 
and any cracks or fissures are carefully 
searched for. 

The men are paid partly in money and 
partly by rations — bread, lard, butter, and 
grain, which the Emperor retails cheaply 
to them. They are well paid for Austria. 
Every child in their families is taken into 



122 Herr von Prinzinger. 

account, and for every fresh arrival t they 
have extra pay. They also retire on a 
pension after a long service. Including 
wood-cutters, boatmen, wood-pipe makers, 
and actual workers, about six hundred men 
are employed in the salt-works at Ebensee. 
It is hard labour, but very healthy, the 
men rarely having any illness. Herr von 
Prinzinger seems greatly beloved amongst 
them. We were told in the village that he 
had done very much to improve the con- 
dition of the workmen in every respect. 
He has obtained for them a better quality 
of bread, has established schools for their 
children, and encouraged the musical abili- 
ties of the men by the formation of a band. 
In short, he is one of the few Austrians 
who march with the times, and do not 
sigh over the departure of everything old- 
fashioned and belonging to the "good old 



Curious Fact 123 

days," as if the world were " going to the 
dogs." Modern refinements and elegancies 
are not superfluous follies in his eyes, as 
his tastefully-arranged house plainly shows. 

Whilst I was at Ebensee not only did I 
satisfy my curiosity about the salt-works, 
but I also had the gratification of holding 
in my hands a real live mummy baby ! It 
is a most wonderful circumstance, but you 
may reside any time in a German village, 
and while holding daily intercourse with 
inhabitants of every age and size, yet 
never see a baby! In the cool of the 
evening most of the women come out and 
spin or knit at their doors, while pale, 
sickly-looking children crawl about them ; 
but among them you never, by any chance, 
see a baby. This curious fact, I suppose, 
is owing to the mummy system of baby- 
nursing. 



124 Mummy Babies. 

As our landlady possesses a baby of six 
months old, attired in the orthodox mummy 
fashion, I had an opportunity of examining 
its bands and wrappings, and can faithfully 
describe them. The little helpless creature 
is first clad in some of the usual baby 
under-garments, and then is tightly bound 
by swathes of linen to a quilted hard 
wrapper, in which it is encased like a 
chrysalis, its legs being so bound that it 
cannot move them. This wrapper, after 
being again bound very tightly round, is 
ornamented with a ribbon and bow — a 
wretched mockery of the poor little sufferer. 
Until quite recently the arms also were 
confined in the same rigid way. If the 
poor babies could only speak, how indig- 
nantly would they denounce that " tyrant 
custom," which thus deprives them of their 
natural liberty. With what eloquence would 



Deformed Children. 125 

they express their amazement that in this 
enlighten ed nineteenth century their mothers 
should be the slaves of such ignorant preju- 
dices. And with what bitter sarcasm would 
they turn to their general mother, Alemannia, 
and ask her why, instead of wandering in 
the dreamland of metaphysical speculation, 
she did not at once open her eyes, and on 
a subject of so much philanthropic interest 
deign to take a hint from practical Eng- 
land. 

When a baby is thus made into a bundle, 
and a bit of moist white bread tied into a 
rag is popped into its mouth, it can be 
left for hours by itself, like the North 
American's papooses, and gives no trouble 
to anyone. The only drawback — and it is 
a rather serious one — is that the number of 
deformed children is something truly appal- 
ling. If the unfortunate mummy draws up 



126 Unskilled Swathing, 

a leg, or gets a twist by unskilled swath- 
ing, it is sure to turn crooked in limb or 
body. In the little village of Brunn, during 
my stay there this summer, three unfortu- 
nate mummy babies under four months old, 
all born perfectly straight, had to undergo 
surgical treatment in consequence of crooked 
legs and spines. With the cottagers very 
often, as with us, an elder sister — herself 
only a child — is left to act as nurse, at an 
age when so young a girl cannot be ex- 
pected to see the necessity of swathing a 
baby perfectly straight ; and if the little 
victim does not lie quite still in a hori- 
zontal position when undergoing the ordeal, 
a little limb is soon twisted, and the child 
is crippled for life. 

This disgusting practice is continued for 
the first six months of their life, and 
during the next half year they have long 



Desirable Reform. 127 

robes like our babies. At the end of the 
first year, if they can walk, the boys have 
corduroy trowsers, waistcoat, and jackets, 
and usually a blue apron. It is quite dis- 
tressing to see little roly-poly children, 
just able to toddle about, dressed up like 
figures in a pantomime, with their pale, 
weird faces and lank, colourless hair in 
keeping with their strange attire. Only 
twice this year have I seen pretty, rosy, 
healthy children! When I return to Eng- 
land, the first thing that strikes me is 
always the healthy beauty and joyous look 
of the village children. 

The Emperor and Baron von Beust had 
lately introduced some excellent minor re- 
forms into Austria. It would tell well in 
the growth of the next generation, if mum- 
my babies were abolished by law. I was 
thankful to get rid of our landlady's, it was 



128 English Nursery Words. 

so uncomfortable to hold. I had an almost 
uncontrollable wish to break it in half, and 
make it sit down or bend. It reminded me 
forcibly of one of those dolls which in our 
young days we used to receive as presents 
with great contempt, unnatural-looking fig- 
ures, with unpliable wooden legs and arms, 
stiff and unjointed, which we could regard 
with no motherly affection. 

In German there is no equivalent for the 
English word "baby." The unfortunates 
are generally called " Kleine Kinder " (little 
children), or " Wickel-Kinder " ("rolled up 
children). The nursery is the " Kinds Zim- 
mer " (child's room), and the nurse is " Kinds 
Frau" (child's woman). None of these 
words convey the home-like comfortable 
ideas that our English ones do. 

"If the rolled-up child is not asleep, let us 
go into the child's room, and ask the child's 



German Equivalents, y 129 

woman for some tea," does not sound half 
so cosy as " Let us go into the nursery, and 
if baby is not asleep we will ask nurse for a 
cup of tea." 



@r&apier VII. 



FLOATING DOWN TIMBER — DESTRUCTION OF A VILLAGE BY 
FIRE — COOKING SALMON — A DANCE IN THE INN — THE 
EMPEROR AS A SPORTSMAN — TROUT PRESERVE — THE LAND- 
LADY AT THE KRAHE — SHOOTING LODGE AT OFFENSEE — 
THE VIRGINIAN CREEPER AND THE TEA-PLANT— AN IM- 
PERIAL HUNTSMAN, 



k2 



133 



CHAPTER VII. 

TN the evening we walked down to the 
-*- vast timber-yard at the edge of the 
lake, where the timber is stored for burning 
in the salt-works. The wood is all floated 
down from the mountains by the river Traun, 
which is often choked up for a long dis- 
tance by the accumulated logs. The peo- 
ple are dreadfully lazy and careless of this 
splendid timber, and it is often allowed to 
lie so long in the water, that it is half rotten 
before the proper official orders it to be 
taken out to the sawing mills. It seems 
such a pity to cut up those magnificent trees, 
with which they usually feed their fires. 



134 Wood-roofed Houses. 

When one thinks that there is a cheap and 
easy water-road all the way from most of the 
forest mountains, high and broad streams 
that run into the Danube, by which any 
quantity of timber could be easily floated 
down to many parts of Hungary, where 
roads are scarce, and where it would be most 
valuable, it seems a pity that it should be 
allowed to lie and rot in the small tribut- 
ary stream. 

The wooden planks of most floors in com- 
mon rooms in Austria measure on an average 
twenty-five inches wide, while many are thirty 
inches broad. The houses, too, are every- 
where roofed with wood, which looks ex- 
tremely pretty, as it is often painted, and 
with age takes various colours. It is fearfully 
dangerous, however, and when once a fire 
breaks out in a village, what with the wooden 
roofs and the quantity of hay and dry fodder 



Destruction of Aspern by Fire. 135 

that the inhabitants store in the " Boden," or 
loft of their houses, there is little chance of 
extinguishing it, especially in a dry summer 
like the last, so that you hear of the confla- 
gration of entire villages. 

When we were in Briinn one evening at 
eight o'clock, the servants rushed in to beg 
us to come out on the balcony, and look at a 
fearful fire that was raging in the distance. 
It was a long way off, but the whole heavens 
were crimson, like a glorious sunset. The 
fire soon died away, but next morning we 
heard that the entire village of Aspern, on the 
Danube, had been burnt in the short space of 
two hours, the church towers only being left 
standing. The inhabitants were very poor 
people, chiefly employed at the new ir<fb 
manufactories at Simmering. When I in- 
quired for particulars, which I often did, it 
was wonderful to me how calmly the Briinn 



136 Sketching at Ebensee. 

people treated such a catastrophe. Perhaps it 
was too common an occurrence for them to 
trouble themselves much about it, or probably 
they were too near Vienna to think of any- 
thing so triste and dispiriting as human calam- 
ity and misery. However, if Aspern is to be 
rebuilt, it will not run the chance of such a mis- 
fortune again, as by one of the excellent mo- 
dern reform laws it is no longer legal to roof 
new erections of any sort, in town or country, 
with wood. Old wooden roofs may still be 
repaired with the same material, and conse- 
quently many of the Hungarian, Bohemian, 
and Styrian villages will long look beautifully 
picturesque, but, alas ! sadly unsafe. 

All this time, however, we are left sitting 
on the timber by Ebensee. We are sketch- 
ing the lake and mountains as quickly as we 
can, so as to be ready to seize the exact mo- 
ment to colour them when the setting sun, 



Mountain and Lake Scenery. 137 

for only five minutes before it sinks, lights 
up the face of the limestone mountains with 
the most exquisite blush of deep rose-colour, 
but so transient that it must be at once put 
on paper. 

After the sun had gone down, the fleecy 
clouds that overhung the tops of the lofty 
Traunstein and Erlerkogel, were ilfn urinated 
by the same beautiful tint of pale crimson, 
whilst the surrounding mountains were re- 
flected in the dark lake a deep iron grey. 
The scene was so quiet and enjoyable, that it 
was difficult to tear oneself away from it. 
How beautiful was the changing sky ! — how 
imposing those mountains that looked down 
on the lake, sleeping so calmly, and rippled 
now and then by a few fishing boats, or by- 
some of the heavy logs of wood floated down 
by the Traun ! 

A chain is moored on the surface of the 



138 A Few Days at Ebensee. 

lake, not far from the mouth of the river, 
over which the steamer and fishing boats 
glide easily, bat which prevents the logs 
from escaping too far into the lake. There 
is very good fishing here, and salmon are 
constantly caught, but are generally sent to 
the Vienna market. They have a peculiar 
fashion of cooking them at Ebensee by taking 
the flesh out of the skin, and putting it in 
again, mashed up with potatoes, onions, and 
parsley. 

We spent several very pleasant days at 
Ebensee, taking either little excursions to 
see the neighbouring lakes, or enjoying 
beautiful walks round the mountain village. 
One morning we chanced to cot le on a 
little inn in a retired spot, where there 
were music and dancing going on. After 
partaking of some delicious coffee, we took 
a peep at the ball-room. What the dance 



Shameful Want of Feeling. 139 

was called, I cannot pretend to say ; but 
the men seemed a party of tradesmen, or 
officials, probably from Gmiinden; while 
their partners were chosen from the pretti- 
est among the groups of peasant women 
who were gathered round. They began by 
dancing slowly round the room arm-in-arm ; 
then the music got quicker, and the " lady " 
followed her partner with her hands on his 
shoulders. The music being played still 
quicker, they whirled round, with their 
arms twirling over each other's head. A 
very rapid valse then followed, concluded 
by the gentleman whirling his partner as 
high in the air as his strength of arm 
would permit. 

All this time a poor travelling pedlar, 
who had only an hour or two before 
formed one of the party, was lying dead 
in a house close by ! He was well known 



140 Imperial Hunting-Lodge. 

by the peasants as one who wandered about 
the country with his wares. A gentleman 
this evening had given him a larger coin 
than he usually received, and he seemed 
so delighted that it was supposed the ex- 
citement had brought on an attack of heart 
complaint, from which he dropped down 
dead. Yet the peasants went on with their 
music and dancing as if nothing had hap- 
pened. 

A charming drive from Ebensee is that 
which takes us by a beautiful mountain 
road, in excellent order, to Langbathsee, 
where the Emperor has a hunting-lodge, 
at which he was expected the day after 
we were there. The mountains round abound 
in game, and there are glades cut in the 
forests that surround the house, through 
which the deer are driven for the royal 
party to shoot. The Emperor is a 



Beautiful Walk. 141 

keen sportsman, and the people speak en- 
thusiastically of his skill in shooting, his 
zeal in the chase, and his endurance in 
pursuit of chamois. No mountain daunts 
him; and he will climb places where many 
of his Jager dare not follow. The longest 
summer day does not appear too long for 
him to pursue his favourite sport. The 
little Prince Imperial seems also inclined 
to follow his father's example, and though 
only ten years old, has already been out 
several times, and shot well too. 

There is a large open space of lawn 
round the shooting-lodge, to which, in the 
early summer mornings, the chamois often 
come down in herds to feed. It is a very 
pretty, quiet spot, with the small lake in 
front, and round it fine mountains. There 
is a beautiful walk through a wood at 
the back of the house, which leads you 



142 The "Kralie? 

to a very quiet, dark little lake, nestled 
under the side of the heavy frowning pre- 
cipices and beetling craigs which overhang 
it, but fringed round with bright tender 
green beeches, and a many-coloured carpet 
of wild flowers — such lovely blue gentians, 
wild asphodels, monkshood, and beds of 
forget-me-nots. In the shallow waters mul- 
titudes of small fishes swam about, and 
under the bridge some good-sized trout 
were basking. I suppose the sight of these 
made us think of dinner, for we instantly 
began retracing our steps to the spot on 
the other side of Langbathsee where our. 
carriage was waiting. 

We drove to the "Krahe," a little inn of 
moderate pretensions, but with a character 
in the person of the landlady, and with a 
tank of excellent trout. Meat was not to be 
thought of; but we had a large dish of plain 



Trout Preserve. 143 

boiled trout, some smoking-hot potatoes, 
excellent butter and black bread. Gener- 
ally they spoil the trout by boiling them 
with some vinegar in the water to harden 
the flesh, a process which certainly destroys 
the delicate taste. The landlady did not use 
vinegar, or very little, and her trout were 
some of the best I have ever eaten. 

After dinner we went down to the tank 
to see the trout preserve, which was filled 
by a little mountain stream. The fish, which 
seem to live very comfortably, are princi- 
pally fed on the small fish caught in the 
shallows ; but when these are not to be had, 
they give them raw liver minced very fine. 
Near Ischl there are very large tanks for 
trout and saibling. In these they are sorted 
according to size, where space can allow of 
it; an excellent arrangement, for in the 
mountain tanks very often the biggest fish 



144 Preservative against Toothache, 

get the lion's share, and the smaller ones 
fare badly. 

The landlady at the " Krahe " was a very 
chatty old body, and very communicative. 
She had lived there a great many years, and 
though the place was so retired and solitary, 
she said that even in winter it was not dull, 
as the woodcutters and herdsmen generally 
dropped in every evening to smoke their 
pipes and drink beer. For her better half 
she had a profound contempt, which she did 
not scruple to express by significant shrugs 
and sneers whenever he was referred to. 

The girl who waited on us had her face 
tied up, suffering from a bad toothache. The 
old landlady remarked she never suffered 
from toothache; she had had her teeth all 
taken out. On our observing it was not 
particularly becoming to go without teeth, 
she said, if she had been younger, she would 



Landlady of the "Krdhe" 145 

have thought more of it ; but now it did not 
signify. 

We said, 

"But your husband, surely he does not 
like it ; what does he think V 9 

w Oh ! as to that, I don't mind the least. 
If he wishes me to do what pleases me, 
then I do it ; but if he wishes me to do 
what I do not like, then I leave it alone !" 

Truly, that little solitary inn on the lake 
side must never be dull. It would not, 
however, be the cheerfulness of the inmates 
that would rouse up the spirit of animation, 
but the stimulating effect of the keen tongue 
of the landlady. 

The Emperor had another shooting lodge 
near Ebensee, but in a contrary direction 
to Langbathsee, on the little lake of Offen. 
The road to it is like all the roads about, 
most beautiful, only varied in one spot by 

L 



146 Shooting Lodge. 

an ascent up the side of a mountain nearly 
as steep as the walls of a house. The 
horse found a difficulty in dragging even 
the light Einspanner up some bits of it. 
The driver did not suggest our walking, 
and till the horse began to jib he did not 
see the necessity. On our return, moun- 
tain " Arabs " were lying in wait with ropes, 
with the aid of which, the wheels being all 
securely fastened together, the carriage slid 
down this hill. I need not say we seized 
the earliest opportunity to get out and walk 
down. 

The Kaiser's shooting-lodge at Offensee is 
very pretty, and as we had a card of in- 
troduction to the head J'ager, we went all 
over it. It is so nicely furnished, and re- 
minded me of a shooting-lodge in Scotland. 
In the one sitting room all the furniture, 
even to the chairs and chandelier, is made 



Row on the Offensee. 147 

of deers' horns. Old engravings of sporting 
subjects hang round the room, and in a 
recess stands a very well-furnished book- 
case, in which I noticed German transla- 
tions of many of Fenimore Cooper's tales 
and novels. A large boat-house stands near 
the lodge, containing a good many boats, 
longer and lighter than the usual boats 
which they use on the lakes in Austria. 

It is well worth rowing out into the 
middle of the Offensee to see a beautiful 
view of mountain tops, which nearer in 
shore are hidden by the hills covered with 
pine woods, in which splendid specimens of 
capercailzie are sometimes shot. Some of 
these birds, of magnificent plumage and 
size, have been photographed and coloured, 
and now adorn the walls of the lodge. 
The J'ager who showed us over the place 
spoke, like the others, most enthusiastically 

l2 



148 Wild Floivers. 

of the Emperor's love of sport, and of the 
abundance of game about. He said there 
was very little poaching here, but more on 
the Styrian border. The whole of the Salz- 
kammergut is exclusively an Imperial shoot- 
ing monopoly, and splendid sport it must 
afford. The lodge had a pretty attempt 
at a small garden, mostly on rock-work. 
The usual Virginian creeper was growing 
most luxuriantly. I never saw it grow in 
England as it does here. It is usually 
covered with bunches of black grapes, very 
small and hard, which obtain for it in this 
country the name of wild vine. There is 
another little shrub, rather common in Eng- 
land, called the tea-plant, which grows all 
through the summer and autumn. With 
us it has lilac and brown blossoms, insig- 
nificant and scentless. In Austria there are 
hedges of it, and late in summer the sprays 



Survey of the Royal Demesne, 149 

are covered with masses of orange-coloured 
berries, like small capsicums, which fully 
compensate for the want of beauty in the 
flower. 

Our survey of the Royal demesne did 
not take very long; but it certainly is a 
very pleasant thing for poor travellers to 
find themselves in a country where an Im- 
perial huntsman will spend half an hour 
showing you over a Royal residence, and 
afterwards row you out on the lake, and 
receive less than two shillings English 
money with boundless gratitude ! 



©T&apter VIII. 



LINZ— MILITARY MUSIC— AUSTRIAN UNIFORM— PROMOTION IN 

THE ARMY — PETTY JEALOUSIES— RECRUITING WOMEN 

EMPLOYED AS LABOURERS — NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE 
— SCENERY ON ITS BANKS — MILITARY CADETS — KISSING 
AND SHAKING HANDS— VIENNA. 



153 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TJ'ERY glad was I to say good-bye to the 
* promenade at Ischl, with its indifferent 
band and weary treadmill of Viennese shop- 
keepers, and to find myself on the way to 
Linz, through the fine mountain pass to 
Ebensee. We went by steamer down the 
lake to Gmunden, where we got into the 
train, and arrived at Linz at four. There is 
nothing in any way to interest one in Linz, 
and it is rather pleasant to arrive at a town 
where one can rest in peace, and not be 
obliged to submit to the penance of going 
out to see churches and picture-galleries. 
The name of Linz, therefore, remains in my 



154 Military Music. 

mind associated with the most calm and 
peaceful reminiscences. 

In the evening, we heard from the balcony 
of the hotel some agreeable music from the 
band of the 11th (Crown Prince Albert of 
Saxony's) Infantry regiment. There were 
more than forty performers, and they played 
beautifully a veiy nice selection of opera and 
dance music ; but they were almost too near 
and loud for us to enjoy it thoroughly. One 
of the brothers of the Emperor, the Archduke 
Karl Ludwig, was in the same balcony with 
us, having supper, and the band remained till 
he left. 

I am afraid this year is the last time I shall 
see the pretty white uniforms, as a new regu- 
lation has come out, in virtue of which they 
are all to be changed to dark blue. Formerly 
all the Austrian infantry regiments of the 
line had white uniforms, with different-col- 



Austrian Uniform. 155 

oured facings — a dress which dated from the 
Crusades. The scarlet shield of Austria, 
with the white stripe on it, derived its origin 
from the fact that Leopold the Glorious in 
the Holy Land wore a white uniform, with a 
broad gold sash round his waist. After a 
hard day's fighting, when he returned to his 
tent, his white coat was red with the blood 
of the slain ; and as he took off his sash, a 
white band was left where the belt had 
covered his uniform. From that time the 
scarlet shield with the white band became 
the arms of Austria, and the soldiers have 
ever since worn white coats. However, as this 
is no age of romance, but of practical reality, 
this ancient uniform is now to be discontinu- 
ed. Though one cannot but regret the change, 
it must be allowed there are good reasons for 
it. It was a constant employment to keep 
the uniform clean, and the white tunic was a 



156 Qualifications of the Generals. 

conspicuous mark for the enemy in war-time. 
Since the last war, many a solitary grave ly- 
ing round the great battle-fields is passed 
with the remark, " That was thanks to the 
white uniform ;" for the sentries or pickets 
who, in grey or dark colours, might have es- 
caped the observation of the enemy, afforded 
in their white coats an easy mark to men 
armed with the needle-guns, in any light, and 
to an incredible distance. It is devoutly to 
be hoped that the day when Austria shall 
again be obliged to unsheath the sword is far 
distant ; but in this new uniform, and with so 
effective an arm as the breechloader which 
all the Austrian soldiers now carry, the army 
would certainly be better prepared than it 
was in 1866; though whether the generals are 
now better qualified for the command of 
large bodies of troops than they were then, 
is, I fear, still a doubtful question. 



Promotion. 157 

Promotion in the Austrian army is still de- 
cided too much by rank and favouritism. A 
young man with a title, even though his edu- 
cation may be so imperfect that he cannot 
spell correctly, is set over the heads of old 
officers, who are not only, like Cassio, learned 
in the " bookish theorick " of war, but who 
have acquired military skill and the art of 
command by experience in the battle-field. 
It is the " curse of service " that 

" Preferment goes by letter and affection, 
Not by the old gradation." 

The gilded favourites of fortune, who 

" Never set a squadron in the field 
Nor the division of a battle know 
More than a spinster" — 

— men whose soldiership is mere "prattle 
without practice," step over veterans who 
have fought in more campaigns than they can 
number years ; and thus it is that soldiers 



158 Imperial Condescension. 

who have given proof of their warlike skill 
on many a well-fought field — probably nei- 
ther at Rhodes nor at Cyprus, yet " on other 
grounds, christen'd and heathen" — are "be- 
lee'd and becalmed " by mere " popinjays " — 
to use the expression of Hotspur — who, if they 
are only of noble birth, may know no more of 
military strategy than " the tongued consuls." 
Since Baron von Beust, however, has been 
Prime Minister, the Royal saloons have been 
thrown open to a mixture of ranks that 
must have curdled the blood of the exclu- 
sive aristocrats with horror at such a con- 
tamination ; but as they have survived it, 
it is to be hoped that they have not felt 
any evil effects from His Majesty's gracious 
condescension to his lower subjects. Let 
us hope, therefore, that gradually this dis- 
cernment of worth and talent in people 
not born with the blue blood of count- 



Military Jealousies, 1 59 

less generations may extend to the army 
and general society, so that the ignorant 
prejudice and narrow-minded exclusiveness 
which has kept Austria so backward in 
her position amongst nations, may, with the 
days of the Concordat, soon come to be 
smiled at as a memorial of the dark ages 
of this empire. 

The soldiers, unfortunately, are as well 
aware as any of their officers of the little 
jealousies and petty differences that so la- 
mentably disqualify their leaders, and in 
an emergency expose the army to destruc- 
tion. In relation to the last war, they talk 
openly of one general who sacrificed his 
soldiers to prove that another was wrong 
in his tactics. At Skalitz, when they saw 
that the fight had turned against them, 
and that the day would be lost if the 
reserve force did not come up quickly, the 



160 Murmurs of the Soldiery. 

general of the latter body, who had a 
spite of his own against the commander, 
purposely led his men by the longest 
route to the relief of their comrades, and 
every soldier amongst them not only saw 
that they would be too late, but knew the 
cause. They will tell you that they were 
marched here and there without rhyme or 
reason, till they were thoroughly worn out 
and disgusted. The orders one general 
gave were countermanded the next hour by 
another. It is no longer concealed that they 
were in a state of utter despair and hope- 
lessness before Koniggratz, having lost all 
confidence in their leaders. The soldiers 
audibly murmured, asking one another why 
they should be killed to gratify the private 
pique of their generals. I am afraid even 
Benedek himself was not free from this 
fault, An acquaintance of my own com- 



Reduction of the Army. 161 

manded a brigade during the war, and a 
most useful and well-trained regiment was 
suddenly detached from his command. A 
council of war was held shortly after, and 
during their discussions a friend happened 
to remark to the general, "So you have 

lost the regiment." " Yes," was the 

answer, "and more's the pity." He looked 
up and saw that Benedek, who had over- 
heard this remark, was displeased, his eyes 
flashing angrily. Next morning the general 
was ordered away on some unimportant 
service. 

The army is now on its peace footing of 
300,000 men; but most people in Austria 
think it might be still further reduced, not 
only without detriment to the service of 
the country, but with great advantage to 
agriculture, as there is a fearful drain on 
the labouring population by the blood-tax, 

M 



162 Enlistment, 

as they call it. Already men enough can- 
not be found to make up the number called 
out every year for military service. The 
officers commanding in the different dis- 
tricts, who have the charge of the recruit- 
ing, have by some means or other to meet 
the demands of the "blood-tax," to keep up 
the enormous standing army. 

All youths over nineteen, whatsoever their 
rank, class, or employment, are liable to 
enlistment, provided they have no radical 
defects, are tall enough, and not flat-footed. 
I am not aware if in England this last 
peculiarity is an impediment to men de- 
sirous of entering the army ; but in Austria 
they are so particular about it, that un- 
less the impression of the foot, dipped in 
water, leaves the requisite dry mark where 
the arch of the instep has escaped the wet, 
they are rejected. If they are accepted, 



Three-year Soldiers. 163 

and by the new law there is no alter- 
native, and they are neither able nor will- 
ing to pay the thousand gulden (which is 
the lowest sum accepted as smart-money), 
they serve for three years. If there is no 
war at the end of that time, and they 
wish it, they return home. These men 
generally swell the vast army of beggars 
in Germany. Not disposed to remain sol- 
diers, and too idle to work at home, they 
roam about, extracting kreutzers from the 
soft-hearted, and living a dissolute, vaga- 
bond life. Everywhere in Austria these 
three-year soldiers bear the worst of cha- 
racters. Of course if a young man of 
nineteen has been just taken from a trade 
he was learning, or from a farmstead or 
manufacture where he was of use and 
importance, it is different. If they prefer 
soldiering, they remain in the service for 

M 2 



164 Evils of the Military System. 

six years ; and, in time of peace, remain 
for two years in the reserve force, which, 
in many respects, is equivalent to our 
militia. At the end of eight years (from 
the age of nineteen) they are free for 
ever. 

All this soldiering is dreadfully injurious 
to the agricultural, and even moral pro- 
spects of the country. The women have 
to leave their homes and families and do 
the hard work of men ; and it is revolt- 
ing to see the peasant women transformed 
into horrible-looking objects, employed as 
scavengers, ostlers, and ploughmen. Wo- 
men may even be seen thrashing and mow- 
ing, looking coarse, masculine, and brutal. 
Manual work of the hardest kind falls 
on these unfortunate creatures, for nowhere 
in Austria have I seen any mitigation of 
(abour in the shape of steam help ; though 



Scenery of the Danube. 165 

often in Bodenbach I used to see luggage 
trains pass, with engines carefully covered, 
on trucks from Ransome and other well- 
known engineering firms. I suppose, as 
they were going south, they were to be 
eventually employed somewhere in Austria, 
and not put into a museum ! — but I have 
never seen one working ! And all this 
time you see thousands upon thousands of 
idle soldiers loitering about in every vil- 
lage and town in the empire. If the Em- 
peror could only be persuaded to give up 
his favourite toy, or even consent to re- 
duce it to more reasonable bounds, it would 
be an unspeakable relief to the country. 

We had to leave Linz at 8 A.M., by 
the Danube steamer, a very good boat, 
heavily laden with goods, and carrying a 
large number of passengers. The scenery 
is flat, and not very interesting for many 



166 Navigation of the Danube. 

miles after you pass Linz — merely a few 
wooded hills on each side, and shoals upon 
shoals of mountain sand and gravel block- 
ing up the greater part of the stream of 
the noble river. The sudden bends and 
turns the steamer had to make to avoid 
these banks were marvellous — sometimes 
steering quite close to one side of the 
river, and the next minute going right 
across the stream and passing for some 
distance within a couple of feet of the 
opposite bank. The wash of the vessel, 
as we passed the shoals, carried away 
with its tiny waves masses of the sand 
and stones. In many places large patches 
of the tall reeds came sweeping down into 
the water. If this happens every time a 
large steamer passes, surely the bed of the 
river will very soon be choked up, and it 
will no longer be navigable. 



Improvement of the River. 167 

I am told that, after some years of dis- 
cussion and planning, steps are to be 
immediately adopted for improving the pre- 
sent state of the Danube. It will cost some 
millions of gulden, but anything is better 
than the present melancholy aspect of the 
dreary wastes of sandbanks, which render the 
river almost useless. The labour of remov- 
ing the shoals and deepening the shallows 
will employ many hundred of hard-working 
women 1 I conclude that the times at which 
the large steamers pass are pretty well 
known in the different localities on the 
banks ; for if not, it must be very dangerous 
not only for the small fishing-boats, but for 
those employed cutting reeds at the sides. 

At many places I saw the boats drawn up 
high out of the wash by the poor people to 
whom they belonged ; but at one spot I ob- 
served a boat with an old man in it, which 



168 The Rhine. 

another was holding by a rope from the beach. 
They had not drawn it up high enough, for the 
wave following us took it broadside on, and 
rolled it over and over. This was an acci- 
dent to which they were perhaps used, for 
the old man clung on with a strong grip, and 
rolled over with the boat, seeming to suffer 
no harm but the wetting. The whirlpools I 
was prepared to find much more awful than 
they really are, but the scenery about them 
is really beautiful ; and in the evening, under 
the effect of light and shade produced by the 
setting sun, it must for many miles be very 
striking. Under a hot August sun at mid- 
day it certainly loses much of its beauty, and 
•I must confess to having felt disappointed. 

The Rhine causes the same feeling of dis- 
appointment, even in the most beautiful parts, 
when seen by a noonday sun. From the rail- 
way it is almost ugly, with its glaring, dusty- 



Repulsive Hungarian. 169 

looking banks, its vineyards and its ruins of 
castles, without variety of shade or distinct 
outline. On steaming slowly up, however, 
between Coblenz and Bingen, late on a sum- 
mer evening, when the rocks are softened 
and blended, the vineyards almost lost, and 
the ruins stand out boldly against the sum- 
mer sky, then the- Rhine is indeed lovely. I 
am sure the Danube must be the same, but I 
did not feel at all sorry to go down to dinner 
amongst some of the most romantic scenery. 
If there was nothing romantic in the din- 
ing-cabin, we had at least an excellent dinner, 
with plenty of vegetables and fruits. Oppo- 
site to me sat a most repulsive-looking old 
Hungarian. He reminded me very unplea- 
santly of an infirm old tiger I had once seen 
in some zoological gardens. As he took 
bones, flesh, and skin in his hands, glaring at 
the same time fiercely round, he munched 



170 Military Cadets. 

them between his jaws. I am sure if any 
waiter had touched him, or offered to remove 
his plate, he would have growled. He was a 
horrid old man! His fork he only used 
when he stuck it into the dishes of compote 
or preserved fruits, very often missing his 
aim, and sometimes dropping one or two off 
his fork, which he put back with his hands 
into the dish. Alas ! for the unwary travel- 
ler who ate compote or dried fruit next day ! 
An old lady delighted me greatly by the in- 
nocent way with which, with silver grey hair, 
she wore a bright chestnut chignon ! I hope 
she had them all colours, to suit the trim- 
mings of her bonnet. 

When about a couple of hours from Vi- 
enna, we took on board nearly a hundred 
cadets from a large military school. Some 
were going to a large military college in 
the Kaiserstadt, and others to another in- 



Bidding Good-bye, 171 

stitution of the same kind near it. Most 
of them wore the Jager uniform, the rest 
a cavalry dress. The amount of kissing 
that took place before they parted at their 
different destinations was wonderful. 

The majority of them were mere boys, and 
they looked so very sorry to say good-bye. 
As they shook hands and kissed again and 
again, it seemed very simple and natural. 
But to us English it never can be any- 
thing but ludicrous to see a party of friends 
meet or part. The ladies bend coldly and 
distantly to the gentlemen ; but the latter 
fall into each other's arms and embrace, hug, 
and kiss ; and then kiss, hug, and embrace 
again and again, as if it would not be just 
as good to give a thoroughly hearty shake 
of the hands. 

The fashion of kissing a lady's hand is still 

p 
much used, and I think it a very pretty one, 



172 The Danube. 

it seems so deferential and respectful, and 
yet so kindly. If any one you do not fancy 
offers to do so, you can always stop hiin 
without offence, by pretending you are tho- 
roughly English, and shaking him heartily 
by the hand. He will be too astonished 
then to think of kissing, for ladies scarcely 
ever shake hands in Austria, though the cus- 
tom is coming much more into fashion than 
formerly. 

The water of the Danube does not al- 
low the large steamers to go up to Vienna 
(and this year it was so low, that we 
had to land at a spot below the usual 
place). About half an hour, therefore, be- 
fore reaching Vienna, two smaller steamers 
are generally waiting, into which passengers 
and luggage are hurried. In the suburbs 
of the city, and close to the river's bank, 
some marvellously' handsome barracks are 



Unhealthiness of Vienna. 173 

being built, in much too elaborate and cost- 
ly a style of architecture for such a pur- 
pose. I heard murmurs from many on board 
at the lavish waste of so many millions of 
florins, when the country is so near bank- 
ruptcy as it is just now ! I could not help 
mentally agreeing with the speakers, when 
I thought how much more usefully the money 
might have been employed. 

Vienna is notoriously one of the most un- 
healthy cities of Europe, partly from its low 
situation, from the excessive dust, and from 
its very defective drainage. The obituary 
in most of the Vienna papers not only gives 
the names and ages of the deceased, but also 
the diseases of which they have died ; and I 
noticed that, even this fine dry summer, more 
than half the deaths in Vienna were from 
lung diseases of various kinds. It is also a 
well-known fact that the Danube is a most 



174 Pressburg. 

insalubrious river, and, except Pressburg, 
every city through which it runs is more or 
less unhealthy. I suppose this arises from 
the inundations in winter, and from the 
quantity of light dust that is always blow- 
ing in summer, with the slightest breath of 
air, from the long reaches of sand-banks its 
waters leave when they recede. If it were 
not for the Danube they say that Pressburg 
would be the most healthy city in Europe. 



<ST^aphr IX. 



BRUNN AM GEBERGE — SIGNAL FOR THE VILLAGE COWS — 
SENSELESS GAME — STATE OF RELIGION — PILGRIMAGES TO 
ST. MARIA ENZENSDORF— ABSURD CEREMONIES — ABUND- 
ANCE OF FRUIT— IMPROVEMENTS IN AUSTRIAN INNS— 
SCHNELLSIEDER — PREPARATION OF COFFEE. 



177 



CHAPTER IX. 

T)RUNN AM GEBERGE is a very small 
-^ village, entirely surrounded by vine- 
yards. A few people, come out from Vienna 
for the summer months, and reside in some 
of the better class of houses and villas, 
of which there are only about half a dozen. 
Being so small, it cannot boast of a pro- 
menade or band, or any great attraction 
beyond its retirement, and, at the same 
time, its convenient proximity to Vienna. 
Its inhabitants seem to trade mostly in 
milk and butter ; and the place swarms 
with cows. 

At five o'clock every morning in sum- 

N 



178 The Village Cows. 

mer, and at six o'clock in winter, a man 
goes the round of the village, playing 
different lively national tunes on a bugle. 
This is the signal for the cows to come 
out to pasture ; and, accordingly, in every 
house you see a door thrown open, 
and animals of all sizes and colours 
make their appearance from the cottages; 
from some of them, two or three. They 
either saunter slowly or trot briskly down 
the streets to the spot where the cow- 
herds are waiting for them. When they 
are all assembled, they are driven off to 
the field — not certainly to eat (as the pas- 
ture is generally meagre and poor), but 
perhaps for change of air and exercise, 
which may be considered good for them. 
They come home at eleven, decidedly more 
quickly than they set out. The cowherds 
have enormous leather whips, which, as they 



Maternal Instinct. 179 

crack them round their heads with a re- 
port like that of a pistol, have a wonder- 
ful effect on the cows, seldom failing to 
bring any straggler up into the ranks. 
At twelve o'clock again the bugle is sound- 
ed, and once more the procession is formed, 
returning home at six o'clock — milking time. 
All is conducted so orderly and quietly. 
The cows come down the streets by them- 
selves in such an exemplary manner, wait- 
ing patiently at the doors of their respect- 
ive owners till they are let in. If kept 
waiting too long, they begin a gentle low- 
ing, and sometimes a friendly passer-by 
opens the door for them. 

Occasionally in the morning the maternal 
feelings of some cow gets the better of the 
dread of the crack of the heavy whip, and 
she turns round, instead of joining the 
herd, to take one more look in the home- 

n2 



180 Senseless Game. 

shed, at the two or three days' old calf, 
which her instinct tells her will be sent to 
the butcher directly her back is turned. In 
this case, if the sound of the cracking 
leather thong is too far off to rouse her 
from her dream of affection, a baby three 
or four years old, clad in corduroy suit, is 
sent in charge of the beast, till it rejoins 
its companions. 

One of the senseless games of a country 
where, alas! cricket is unknown, is for the 
herdsmen to assemble in a circle and try to 
outvie each other in cracking their whips! 
This is a harmless recreation, confined to 
saints' days and Sundays. 

As far as I have discovered, cows and 
herdsmen are the only animals in Austria 
that really enjoy a rest on Sunday, as 
that is the only day the former are not taken 
out to "pasture. Shops and exhibitions are 



Observance of Sunday. 181 

open, and the advertisement sheet of the 
Vienna papers contains always a long list 
of theatres and balls, extra trains and 
other conveyances, especially for Sunday. 
The Jager from the neighbouring* barracks 
walk about in full-dress, and, with the fact 
that no cows are to be seen, their ap- 
pearance makes the only difference I could 
discover between Sunday and week day. 
I must do the common people the justice 
to say that they never omit going to church 
once, if not twice, a day. Servants are 
equally observant of this duty. The ab- 
sence of all religion in the middle classes, 
however, is something awful. There seems 
to be an utter want of all faith. No one 
appears to realize the ideas of immortality 
and eternity, and it is painful to hear these 
subjects discussed in this country. The 
hopeless idea that when we die we are no 



182 St, Maria Enzensdorf, 

better off than the beasts that perish, is 
the creed which not only men but women 
openly profess. The mild and pure-minded 
Martin Luther cherished a bright and hope- 
ful faith in a happy eternity, so compre- 
hensive, that he would not even deny that 
dogs might have a hereafter; and his 
countrymen in the south now refuse to ac- 
cept this glad solace for the miseries of 
life. 

The adjoining village to Briinn is St. 
Maria Enzensdorf, a famous place for pil- 
grimages. In the early part of September 
several Hungarian processions came, headed 
by one or two bright banners. The men, 
who marched in two long lines, were dressed 
in the full white short trowsers, and loose 
white blouse, with open hanging sleeves 
and leather belt, which is the summer dress 
of the peasants in Hungary. These were 



Hungarian Pilgrims, 183 

followed by the women, dressed in cottons 
of every colour in the rainbow, orange and 
scarlet being principally predominant in the 
handkerchiefs which covered their heads. 
Every woman in the crowd carried on her 
back an enormous white bundle, which con- 
tained provisions for the road, and things 
to be blessed. These Hungarian pilgrims 
only came the first few days in September, 
and generally travelled by steamer to Vienna, 
whence they Avalked to the shrine. When 
they came within sight of St. Maria Enzens- 
dorf, they broke forth into a loud chaunt, 
the men at the same time uncovering their 
heads, and showing then; long sleek hair, 
parted down the middle, and hanging lank 
on each side of then* whiskerless faces. They 
all looked so serious and so much in earnest 
that one could not help feeling sympathy and 
respect for them, sentiments very different 



184 Religious Processions. 

from those with which one looked on the 
usual processions, which constantly passed, 
of men in chimney-pot hats and broad- 
cloths, and of women in enormous crinolines, 
with tawdry bonnets or hats, covered with 
cheap gaudy artificial flowers, and carrying 
parasols of every imaginable hue, all whis- 
pering, chattering, and laughing together. 
As they moved on, the band played a 
merry polka, or Valkslied, or the crowd 
chaunted a hymn. In the middle of the 
latter I have seen a " chignoned " lady 
pursue a fat beadle, decked in gold lace 
and cocked hat, in order to hang a picture 
of St. Mary by a red tape round his neck. 
Such a mixture of religion and frivolity 
was never seen. It was the ignorance and 
superstition of the Dark Ages in the cos- 
tume of the nineteenth century. 

Inside the church the same disagreeable 



Votive Offerings. 185 

feelings are forced on the mind, although 
there v is very little of the cultivation of the 
present age wasted on its external or internal 
appearance as it is. The church is an ugly, 
uncared-for structure, the walls of which are 
covered with ostentatious votive offerings of 
pictures of every size and shape, some even 
large oil-paintings, containing a full-length 
likeness of the donor, and in some cases of 
the donors, with a sick child or an invalid 
parent — how correct the likeness, I cannot 
say — lying in bed. The presentation of these 
pictures surely betrays ignorance, vanity, 
and bad taste in those who can afford to 
make such expensive offerings. Even a 
mite given towards the embellishment of 
the house of God, to render it more worthy 
of the service for which it wa$ intended, 
would be in better keeping with the feelings 
of gratitude and thankfulness for prayers an- 



186 Fruit. 

swered and dear ones restored to health. 
The command not to let the right hand know 
what the left hand gives, would then be more 
implicitly obeyed than it is by thus placarding 
the holy walls with the names and addresses 
and likenesses of those who by so doing con- 
vert the house of God into a ludicrous repre- 
sentation of the booth of a travelling quack 
in a country fair ! 

It speaks very well for the honesty of the 
poor people who form these processions that, 
though they walk for weary miles along the 
hot dusty roads, with vineyards on each side, 
the grapes which hang so temptingly are 
never touched. The country all round 
abounds in fruit. Early in September we 
had delicious nectarines, small, but highly 
flavoured. * Afterwards came a succession of 
peaches, also small, but very good. I did 
not appreciate the sort which they call 



A Great Comfort 187 

" Orangien," and in Italy " Non mi lasciar," 
the kernel of which grows into the fruit. 
The " Kemloser " are very much better. 

Such beautiful plates of fruit we used to 
have at all our meals ! — dishes piled up with 
peaches, grapes, and nectarines, arranged 
with much taste with the natural leaves. 
The grapes are considered so wholesome 
that they are eaten rather freely. I never 
could make my kind Austrian host and host- 
ess understand that a pound of grapes at 
Bach meal was more than we usually took in 
England. We also thought that eating them 
one at a time was more enjoyable than put- 
ting nearly a bunch into one's mouth at 
once. 

One great comfort I enjoyed at Briinn was 
a bed long enough for me. It was the first 
I had had in which I could really sleep com- 
fortably since I came to Germany. Some- 



188 Schnellsieder. 

times, after a long day's walking, it was 
dreadful to squeeze oneself into a small box 
about five feet long — the length of almost 
all the bedsteads in the mountain inns. I 
was also glad to find that baths are not 
looked upon in Austrian houses as an un- 
known luxury, as is commonly supposed in 
England. In fact, railway-travelling, and 
intercourse with other nations, have been 
the means of introducing many excellent 
reforms into Austria, as they have into most 
countries. 

Of course, in the very little towns off the 
beaten track, the inns are as destitute of 
comfort and convenience of any kind as they 
were in the first days of travelling, and you 
must expect to rough it in them. One great 
comfort in travelling is the possession of 
an Etna, or " Schnellsieder ; " not a tea- 
kettle or tea-pot, as Mr. Murray advises, 



Tea and Coffee. 189 

which would cause more trouble than com- 
fort. A much more useful " Schnellsieder " 
may be bought in any town in Austria for 
seventy kreutzers than would be got in Eng- 
land for double that sum. " Spirituous " for 
burning may be purchased anywhere, and 
thus a cup of tea can be made in a few min- 
utes. Besides, as the English are so dirty 
that they must be constantly washing, it is a 
comfort to be able to boil a little hot-water 
even in a friend's house, when kitchen-stoves 
are extinguished, and indulge in the luxury 
of a hand-washing when one fancies. Those 
who drink green tea had better bring it with 
them from England, as that which is bought 
while travelling is generally very coarse. 

I wish, however, we in England would try 
to imitate the coffee which is made abroad, 
where it is as exceptional to get a bad cup as 
it is the reverse in England. One great fault 



• 



190 Receipt for Coffee. 

we have in the process of preparing coffee is 
that of keeping it too long ready roasted and 
ground. Most families in Austria have a 
grand coffee roasting once a week, and it is 
only ground when it is wanted, or a certain 
portion for use daily. The following is an ex- 
cellent receipt for coffee, from a soldier ser- 
vant renowned for his skill in his concoction. 
A small table-spoonful of ground coffee is 
used for every cup wanted. When put into 
the coffee-pot it is pressed down very tight 
with the presser. When the presser is taken 
out, a very little water, quite boiling, is put into 
it, and it is closed up. When it is heard drip- 
ping a little more boiling water is added. 
When this has been repeated three times, the 
powder will be well saturated. Then fill up 
as much as you want, but always keep the 
water boiling ; close the coffee-pot each time, 
and take out the tin rammer. Fresh roasted 



Injurious Preparations. 191 

coffee should always be used. This method 
will never fail to make excellent clear strong 
coffee, without those eggshell or isinglass pre- 
parations which generally render it undrink- 
able. 



UTIjapter X. 



STREET SCENES IN BRUNN — HUNGARIAN OX-DRIVERS — CUL- 
TIVATION OF MAIZE — COUNTRY INNS — HERR AND FRAU 

VON H EMPLOYMENT OF DOGS — PETERSDORF — 

BEAUTIFUL CHURCH — SUFFERINGS OF PETERSDORF FROM 
WAR — BESIEGED BY THE TURKS — JACOB TRINKGELD — 
DESTRUCTION OF THE HOSPITAL CHURCH. 



195 



CHAPTER X. 

A T Briinn I felt sadly idle. I could have 
-*"*- stood all day at the windows, and 
watched the ever-changing scene presented 
by the passers-by, so different from the 
wearisome promenade at Ischl, with its 
crowd of over-dressed women in rechauffe* 
ball-dresses, its lounging officers and dandies, 
in their tedious treadmill movements up and 
down ! . At Briinn every moment there was 
something picturesque or unusual to arrest 
attention, and excite either wonder or amuse- 
ment. A shrill, not unmusical cry of " In- 
dianen," would call you to the window, 

02 



196 Ox-drivers. 

and you would see pass by a large flock of 
turkeys, every shade of brown and white, 
driven by at least three dirty, picturesque- 
looking vagabonds, armed with long whips, 
with which they mercilessly flipped up any 
straying bird, keeping them in wonderful 
orddr. Repeating their cry of "Indianen," 
they stopped at every door in hope of cus- 
tomers. 

These would be followed by several teams 
of the large pale grey Hungarian oxen, with 
their intelligent dark eyes, the mild expres- 
sion of which contrasted so strangely with 
the fierce aspect of their enormous long 
horns, straight, curled, twisted, and droop- 
ing, in no two alike. Their drivers were 
no less interesting — all Hungarians, with 
their proud, erect bearing and reckless 
swagger, carrying their whips as if they 
were sceptres, and wearing their floating 



Gipsies. 197 

dirty white garments as if they were robes of 
royalty. They were very kind to their cat- 
tle, but kept aloof from their fellow-workers. 

A "group of dark, beautiful gipsy women 
would stop to count their gains, and see 
if they could afford money for tobacco at 
the small shop opposite. Such dark flashing 
Bohemian eyes, and black hair shining under 
the usual gaudy-coloured gipsy handkerchief ! 
I used to be particularly amused watching 
a little peasant girl at the corner of the 
street, who had a small bench covered wdth 
fruit — ripe tempting clusters of grapes and 
plates of rosy-cheeked peaches, which she 
used to dispose of to the passers-by. 

Though the grapes were only a kreutzer 
(not a farthing) a bunch, I often saw some 
tired, wandering harp-women, pale, sickly- 
looking children, or dusty carters, who had 
asked the price, turn away without purchas- 



198 Cu Itivation of Maize. 

ing any, because they found it too high for 
^their limited purses. I felt really for them, 
but I consoled myself with the thought that 
further on in the neighbourhood they might 
find some cheaper, as every door nearly had 
its bench with saucers of fruit for sale. 

Of the many picturesque figures I saw 
passing along the streets, I used to think 
some of the most striking in appearance 
were the women returning from the maize- 
fields, with their high baskets strapped to 
their shoulders, and loaded with the green 
maize drooping so gracefully, like waving 
green plumes, each broad leaf falling ex- 
actly where it ought, as if arranged by the 
hand of an artist. Maize is a most useful 
plant here, and there are many fields of it 
about Briinn, on the level grounds inter- 
spersed with the vineyards. They feed 
their cattle with the fresh cut green leaves. 



Avis aux Voyageurs. 199 

When dry, they stuff their mattresses with 
them, and the grain is the principal food of 
their poultry; but I doubt it is not distri- 
buted to them with a very open hand, for 
never in Austria, except at private houses, 
have I eaten poultry which could possibly 
have partaken — at least, in sufficient quan- 
tity — of anything so nourishing as Indian 
corn. 

I would strongly advise all travellers in 
Austria for once carefully to avoid good Mr. 
Murray's advice in his useful hand-book, 
and never order " gebackenes Huhn," unless 
they are so accommodating as to be able to 
dine contentedly on bones and batter. We 
have generally found, at most country inns, 
the veal cutlets, which are always ready, 
very good. At some mountain inns they 
smile at the idea of meat ; but then you 
have the acceptable alternative of fresh- 



200 At the Window. 

caught trout, smoking-hot plain-boiled pota- 
toes, and excellent butter. One hint I would 
offer is, always (if you can) to dine as near 
one o'clock as possible, if you wish for 
soup — before one is best, and not after. 
The rule is, iC First come, first served ;" and 
those who arrive late have only the re- 
mains of the soup first served, filled up 
with boiling water — horribly weak stuff, 
and always reminding me of a third cup 
of tea ! 

I must now return from my long digres- 
sion, and again take my idle seat at the 
window. I must do myself, however, the 
justice, to say I always had a bit of work 
in hand, though the progress it made was 
marvellously slow. I consoled myself, how- 
ever, with the reflection that, when one is 
out for a holiday, one has a right to be 
idle. 



Marquis of Carabbas. 201 

There was one object that passed on 
which I always gazed with much awe and 
wonder. This was an old paralytic man, 
drawn in a bath-chair. He was enormously 
rich — the Marquis of Carabbas of the place. 
At least, his wife was Marchioness of Ca- 
rabbas, as the old gentleman himself had 
sunk to the condition of a nonentity since 
his illness. Every house you stopped to 
admire in the village belonged to the 

Frau von H . A beautifully-cultivated 

kitchen-garden we passed was Frau von 

H 's. A large herd of cows which went 

past, or several teams of horses, which we 
admired as they were led or driven along 

the street, were all Frau von H 's. The 

blacksmith's forge, the carpenter's shop, the 
butcher's stall, the vineyards, the maize 
fields, all — all were hers ; until at last I 
came to the conclusion that if there was 



202 Hard-working Dogs, 

anything that did not belong to Frau von 

H , it could only be the church and 

the railway. 

The old man was said to be very hard 
and cruel. A boy in his service had once 
so excited his rage that he beat him 
with such severity that he died in conse- 
quence. Herr von H , according to the 

village legend, only escaped just punish- 
ment by paying a very large sum to the 
officers of justice; in addition to which 
he was condemned constantly to wear a 
black rope round his neck, which the pub- 
lic executioner from Vienna comes once a 
month to inspect, supplying a new one when 
wanted. 

Very different were the feelings with which 
I regarded the poor dogs in this place ; 
which, though kindly treated, are much used 
here as beasts of burden, especially for drag- 



Petersdorf. 203 

ging grinding organs, which abound in this 
town, three or four playing before my win* 
dows every morning, and often two grind- 
ing at the same time a " Czardas," and 
" God save the Emperor." Luckily for the 
dogs, a tax has just been put on them ; 
and as their labours may consequently be 
dispensed with, probably their days of hard 
work are over. 

About half an hour's walk from Brlinn, 
on the road towards Rodaun, at the foot 
of some hills, lies the small town of Perch- 
toldsdorf, commonly called Petersdorf. It 
is a very small place, but has a beautiful 
church, and some interesting remains of an 
ancient castle. The church is considered a 
" beautiful monument of powerful Gothic 
architecture." It is built over a small 
underground church, which is supposed to 
have been erected in the time of the Knights 



204 Interesting Church. 

Templars, in the reign of Leopold the 
Glorious, 1208—1209. 

The beautiful upper church seems to have 
been used for a magazine till the year 
1420, when the good Princess Beatrice, 
widow of Prince Albert the Fourth, restored 
it, and dedicated it to St. Elizabeth. She 
also founded an hospital for poor people 
and pilgrims. The beautiful church-tower 
stands alone, about twenty feet from the 
east end of the building. The lower part 
was formerly a chapel, dedicated to St. 
Nicholas. The altar-stone is still to be 
seen, and in the centre is a trap-door, 
through which is a draw-well, to be used 
in case of a siege. The ascent to the top 
is nearly two hundred feet, and a fine 
view is obtained from it towards the Styrian 
mountains. In the tower hang seven bells, 
and every day at three o'clock three bells 



Misfortunes of Peter sdorf. 205 

are chimed, a custom the origin of which 
tradition assigns to the Knights Templars. 

The church, which, with the tower, is 
built of freestone, is a beautiful building, 
with very high slender Gothic pillars, a fine 
high altar, and six side ones. In its palmy- 
days it must have been a magnificent and 
impressive edifice ; but troubles seem to 
have fallen thick and fast on Petersdorf 
from an early time. Hardly were the Castle 
and walls finished, the church restored, and 
the hospital built, when the Hungarians, 
under John Hunyad, plundered the town, 
and set it on fire. It was soon after re- 
stored and rebuilt. Civil wars afterwards 
broke out, and Petersdorf was constantly 
the theatre of fighting and tumult. In 1463 
it was pledged to Counts von Pofing and 
St. George. In consequence of a diversity 
of misfortunes it became a mere ruin till 



206 Besieged by the Turks. 

1521, when the walls were strengthened 
and rebuilt, and the tower was restored. 
Three years later the Rath-haus and 
St. Leonhard's church were also repaired. 
Those works were not done too soon, for 
eight years after came a powerful Turkish 
host, which surrounded the walls; but only 
the hospital, church, and the houses outside 
the town, fell into the hands of these in- 
vaders. A long peace then followed, till 
the year 1605, when the Hungarian rebels, 
under Bocskay, marched to the walls of 
Petersdorf, and burnt the hospital and 
church. 

More dreadful was the fate of the town 
in 1683. Light troops of Spahis and Tar- 
tars showed themselves on the 9th of July 
before its walls. The armed burghers at 
first drew back, but on the 10th and 12th 
of the some month sallies were unsuccess- 



Flag of Truce. 207 

fully made. We have a record of the siege 
by the town magistrate, Jacob Trinkgeld. 

When the Turkish army of 200,000 men 
raised the siege of Raab, the roving Tartars 
and rebels were ordered to scour the whole 
land of Austria south of the Danube, and 
lay it waste with fire and sword. They 
fought with such fury against Petersdorf 
that it was impossible to resist them; and 
when, their powder getting low, they pro- 
ceeded to burn the town in several places, 
the besieged thought it best to remove then- 
goods and property, and withdraw into the 
church, which was considered fire-proof. 
Their wives and children were placed, for 
greater safety, in the small under-ground 
church. 

On the 18th, after the town had been 
burnt, a Turk, waving a white flag, came 
down the High Street, and proceeded to die- 



208 Treachery of the Pasha. 

tate terms to the besieged. They were sum- 
moned to do homage to the conqueror, and 
pay a ransom of 4,000 florins, on compliance 
with which terms they might come forth from 
the church and tower, and their lives would 
be secure. The next morning the Pasha 
came from Vienna with a large force, and for 
five hours he sat on a red carpet awaiting the 
reply of the besieged. After serious consul- 
tation, the men resolved to yield, and as they 
came forth from the church, their arms were 
taken from them, the Turks saying those who 
did homage did not require weapons. When 
they were in the market-place, and after 
they had been examined by fifty Turks, to 
see whether they had any gold concealed 
about their persons, they were all, by a bar- 
barous order of the Pasha, murdered. Ac- 
cording to the old chronicle, " This blood-ball 
lasted from one o'clock till two. Only two 



Memorials of the Slaughter. 209 

escaped. One concealed himself in the clock 
of the tower, and the other in the well under 
St. Leonard's Tower." In the underground 
church they still show the hole that was bro- 
ken in the strong iron-bound door in order to 
bring out the unhappy wives and children, 
who were all sent into slavery. Three thou- 
sand five hundred heads were sent to Vienna, 
and after being exposed in the market-place, 
were thrown into one grave. 

When peace was again restored, the bones 
of the unfortunate men were collected, and 
buried at Petersdorf, where, on the old church 
walls, is a tablet with the inscription, " Here 
rest in peace, from the slaughter of the 
Turks, 3,500 burghers and neighbours. God 
give them everlasting peace !" Yearly, on 
the 19th of July, a requiem of remembrance 
is chanted in Petersdorf Church for the rest 
of the souls of the slain. In the Town-hall 

P 



210 Clock in the Town-hall.' 

is a series of pictures, executed in 1700, 
representing the whole scene of carnage, 
the record of the before-mentioned Jacob 
Trinkgeld being attached. 

In 1703, some Styrian colonists settled in 
Petersdorf, and houses sprang up, and, ex- 
cept for the visit of the plague in 1713, peace 
and comfort seemed to have settled down at 
last on this devoted little town. In the 
Town-hall there is a very queer clock, fixed 
in the trunk of a tree, which, with its 
branches lopped off about half a foot from 
the stem, and polished, makes the clock-case. 
A Turkish Pasha is said to have been hanged 
on this tree, a legend which is still fondly 
cherished ; for to the poor beleaguered in- 
habitants such a capture and punishment 
were events to be kept in remembrance. 
Since we left Briinn, we have heard with 
regret that the hospital, church, and 



A Doomed Town. 211 

several houses near have again been burnt 
down. Poor Petersdorf must be a doomed 
town ! 



P2 



©flrapte XI. 



GERMAN VINEYARDS— THE TRADE IN GRAPES— AUSTRIAN 
WINES— STRAW WINE— GROWTH OF MAIZE — THE MARQUIS 
OF CARABBAS — THE VINTAGE — ROMANCE AND REALITY — 
A VINTAGE SUPPER. 



215 



CHAPTER XL 

YITHEN I first arrived at Briinn I was con- 
' ' stantly awakened during the night by 
guns fired in all directions. I was informed 
it was the watchers in the vineyards keep- 
ing away thieves, but was afterwards assured 
,that the watchers themselves steal many 
more grapes than the thieves. 

There is a certain charm about the name of 
vineyards and vintage, which sounds well in 
poetry, and really exists in Italy, but certainly 
in Germany and Austria has no existence. 
The vines are just as stunted about here as 
they are on the Rhine, and at the end of every 



216 Vines. 

autumn are cut down close to the ground. 

From this knobby stump spring the year's 

shoots, which seldom grow higher than four 

feet,and are tied at two or three intervals with 

wisps of straw to strong short poles. The 

grapes grow on the young shoots, but quite 

• 

close to the old trunk of the vine, so that they 

hang within half a foot of the ground. I sup- 
pose they ripen more quickly being so close 
to the hot earth, but they also come in for a 
good share of dust and mud. Looking at 
a fine garden in September, when the leaves 
begin to colour, one would say the tints are 
beautiful, but a field of waving corn is infi- 
nitely prettier and more graceful. 

Like the cherries in West Kent, the pro- 
duce of the vines is most frequently bought 
at an early stage of their growth by some 
rich speculator, who generally buys the pro- 
duce of the whole district round. From him, 



The Vintage. 217 

for a very trifling sum, one may purchase 
the privilege of walking through the vine- 
yards at any time. Otherwise every short 
cut and every cross-road is forbidden during 
the grape season, when we must keep to the 
public roads and wagon-tracks. 

It is not always worth while, however, 
purchasing this privilege, for after walking 
some distance through a vineyard, we often 
come to a door that is locked, and have to 
retrace our steps. 

This year the vintage is magnificent, and 
both here and in Hungary there has not been 
such a season for years. Grapes are selling 
for fourpence a gallon. We get a mixture of 
all sorts — some small as currants, and not 
much worth eating, others with a delicious 
muscadel flavour — large purple, large white, 
thick skms and thin skins. Some we cannot 
eat without stainiug the tips of our fingers a 



218 Red and Purple Grapes, 

bronzy red hue. These are called squinting 
grapes. They told me that they were going 
to try and grow the true muscadel grape; 
but very seldom is there such a wonderfully 
good year for grapes as the present (1868) 
has been. The winters also are bitterly cold 
and long, so that I should fear the experi- 
ment of introducing the more delicate sorts 
of grapes would not answer. However, at 
present, the different sorts grow pretty much 
mixed together in the vineyards ; and if a few 
white vines grow among the red, they are 
not particular in sorting them separately, but 
throw them all together into the mash- 
tub. 

As a general rule, the purple grapes of 
all sorts are made into the red, and the 
different flavoured white grapes into the 
white vin ordinaire. Both sorts are sold for 
thirty kreutzers a bottle. The white wine is 



Straw Wine. 219 

very agreeable and pleasant in hot weather, 
though rather sharp and very weak. The 
red wine is the nicest I have tasted in Aus- 
tria, and has a most peculiar Russia leather 
flavour, almost like that of dry sherry. 
When it is of genuine quality, it is found 
also to have more body than the white. It 
is not the least like Vdslau, though grown 
so near, and they call it simply vin ordinaire. 

They have a more costly sort, which they 
think much of, though it is called "straw 
wine." The grapes are selected and laid 
carefully on straw for a month, till they 
are nearly as dry as raisins. The wine 
which is. then produced from them is very 
luscious, like Malaga, with a slight flavour 
of straw ! This variety is thought so preci- 
ous that it is only taken in small liqueur 
glasses, or, as they are elegantly called here, 
Schnapps-gl'aser. 



220 First Days of the Vintage. 

The first days of the vintage are heralded 
by the appearance of full-filie^. waggons 
and barrows of green boughs which pour 
into the town. If we follow these to their 
destinations, we find that in almost all the 
court-yards, or little back-yards, even of the 
poorest houses, they use them to construct 
bowers or arbours of green boughs. At 
many houses a pole, with a green bough 
swinging from it, is hoisted from a window, 
or a gateway, as a sign that " wine is sold 
here, to be drunk on the premises." The 
wine which is thus retailed, is the refuse 
and odds and ends of casks of last year's 
vintage, and it is consumed so copiously 
that the whole population is more or less 
drunk. The wine is such weak stuff, a sour 
inky compound, that the quantity they must 
imbibe before it takes effect must be mar- 
vellous. 



Tax on Wine. 221 

Gradually the boughs disappear one by 
one as the wine is consumed ; and then be- 
gins a general cleaning out, when the whole 
place smells from morning till night of wine 
dregs and old casks. In such circumstances 
the atmosphere is anything but agreeable, 
especially in the very hot weather. 

The vintage did not commence till the last 
week in September. We received a fort- 
night's notice of it, and an invitation to join 
the first picking party. About the middle 
of the month we were told that the grapes 
for the table were getting very scarce, an 
announcement which caused us some sur- 
prise, as the village was surrounded by vine- 
yards, and the grapes were hanging thick 
and ripe on every side. However, the state- 
ment was explained by the fact that in Aus- 
tria every measure of wine that is made 
pays a tax to the Government. When the 



222 Evasion of the Law, 

grapes are fully ripe, therefore, they are 
forbidden to be cut, as any diminution of 
the quantity of wine would lower the 
amount of the tax. 

The maize that is cut green for the 
cattle is grown amongst the vines. When 
the peasants go with their large baskets 
to fill them with this grain, they gene- 
rally cut some grapes also, which they hide 
at the bottom. By this dishonest little 
trick, grapes are always to be had. The 
law cannot be very strict, or the grapes 
would not be openly sold at every corner 
of the streets. 

At last came the day I had eagerly 
anticipated, when I should for the first time 
join the "vintage throng." When the heat 
of the day was over, we proceeded through 
forbidden paths and closed vine-clad alleys 
to the scene of harvest, which certainly 



The Vineyard. 223 

fell far short of that described by poets. 
At the entrance to the vineyard, in a piece 
of waste land, were vats and barrels. 
Horses, decorated with flowers and hung 
with bells, were the only objects that had 
anything romantic or poetical in their ap- 
pearance. Men from the vintage ground 
kept bringing in baskets full of beautiful 
purple grapes, which were thrown in clus- 
ters, just as they were picked, on a wire 
tray, stretched over a large wooden tub. 
Two men, standing on each side, with 
their hands rubbed and squeezed the juice 
of the grapes through the fine wire-work. 
I wondered if this explained how the wine 
acquired that pleasant dry flavour which 
it has. In Italy they do it with their feet. 
I prefer, however, the Austrian plan. When, 
enough had been pressed, the juice was 
poured into a barrel, which was hoisted 



224 Marquis of Car abbas. 

on the decorated cart and drawn home, 
there to go through the process of fermenta- 
tion, &c. Much of it must have been wasted, 
as the ground round was saturated with juice, 
spilled in consequence of the clumsy way in 
which it is handled. 

I must not forget to notice that the 
Marquis of Carabbas was seated here; and 
before I left Briinn, I came to the conclusion 
that he was a much-maligned character. 
He really was of a remarkably hospitable, 
genial nature, very appreciative of a joke 
and of fun ; and when he threw back his 
head for a hearty laugh, I looked in vain 
for any traces of the mark of the black rope 
under his neck. 

When we joined the workers in the 
vineyard, we found the vines so closely 
planted together, that it was very difficult 
to walk between the rows, even in these 



Grape-picking. 225 

days of reduced crinoline. A few years ago 
we must have looked on from a distance. 

The vineyard consisted of about eight 
acres, and it was all to be picked before 
night. About twenty or thirty men and 
women were hard at work ; but the scene 
is not to compare with that of hop-pick- 
ing. The grapes grow so close to the 
ground, that the pickers have generally to 
stoop, so that they are hidden from view— 
a position which is very fatiguing. The 
grapes also stain the hands nearly as 
much as the hops; and some are extremely 
dusty and muddy. When I demurred against 
throwing some dirty ones into the baskets, 
the men said it was all the same — the 
juice would come out clean enough. We 
picked on till night came on, and it was 
so dark, one could not tell leaves from 
grapes. 

Q 



226 Moonlight Scene. 

Some of the bunches were splendid, 
weighing, I am sure, three quarters of a 
pound. In many the dried tendrils and 
small green leaves had grown tightly 
wedged in amongst the thick growing 
bunches, and looked so pretty that I often 
had to stop in my picking to admire them. 
The peasants, too, quite appreciated the 
beauty of the fruit, and often called my 
attention to a particularly fine cluster. 

At last work was over, and the order 
came to leave. Before returning with the 
others I took one look at the moonlight 
scene. The situation of the vineyard, on 
a sloping hill, with a rivulet at the foot, 
was very picturesque. On every side rose 
hills clad with vines, their foliage fast 
turning scarlet under the hot rays of a 
long summer. Before us we could see, far 
away across the Danube, plains extending 



The Vintage. 227 

to Hungary, while on the right stood out 
the ruins of the Castles of Babenberg and 
Liechtenstein. A glorious harvest-moon 
shone out bright and clear. As the only 
English person present, I had been conside- 
rate enough not to wear any of the 
modern unpoetic adornments of the day, 
and even my bonnet hung on my arm. 

As we wended our way slowly in single 
file through the narrow vineyard paths to- 
wards Briinn, I could not help thinking 
how very far the scene, beautiful as it was, 
fell short of those pictures of the vintage 
by which painters and poets have taught 
us to form exaggerated ideas of its glory 
and charm. The peasants were much too 
busy when picking to think of singing the 
" vintage chorus," and when work was over 
they were much too tired. The only vintage 
songs I heard were in the late hours of 

12 



228 Vintage Supper. 

the night, and were sung in very uncertain 
melody, and in remarkably falsetto voices. 
The most cheerful sound heard during the 
vintage is the merry jingle of the horses' 
bells as they trot backwards and forwards 
from the farms to the vineyards with the 
large casks of wine-juice. 

If we could have staid, however, to be 
present at the vintage supper, I believe 
we should have seen something realizing 
more completely our ideas of the vintage. 
The tables groan under huge masses of 
meat and heavy dumplings. The feast is 
so abundant that one has an opportunity 
of seeing what German appetites can com- 
pass. There is also an unbounded supply 
of new wine. Dancing concludes the en- 
tertainment, and, as may be easily imagined, 
the mirth by the morning gets fast and 
furious. A band is soon found amongst 



Wandering Harpers. 229 

these people, as wandering harpers, princi- 
pally women, abound. The Zither, or Cither, 
is a favourite instrument, and you rarely 
pass a wine-house, or " restauration," with- 
out hearing one of them, sometimes ac- 
companied by the voice. 



©"frapier XII. 



DAY AT LAXENBURG — HOUSE OF CORRECTION FOR WOMEN — 
COUNT CHORINSKY AND JULIE EBERGENYE — INSTITUTION 
FOR DEACONESSES — PALACE AND GARDENS — CASTLE OF 
FRANZENBERG — MoDLING — CASTLE OF LIECHTENSTEIN — 
CHURCH OF ST. OTHMAR. 



233 



CHAPTER XII. 

/^VNE bright sunny day we spent at Laxen- 
^ burg. It was as hot as June, and de- 
lightfully pleasant under the splendid trees, 
and amongst the sweet-smelling flower-beds 
of the park. 

On the way from Brlinn, about a mile from 
the road, we passed a group of white build- 
ings, clustered round a large white-washed 
edifice, which stood prominently forward, for 
miles an ugly and unsightly object in this 
uninteresting flat country. This is the Neu- 
dorf House of Correction for women ; and here 
the wretched Julie Ebergenye is consigned to 
work out her twenty years of imprisonment. 



234 Institution of Deaconesses. 

Her partner in crime, Count Chorinsky, is un- 
dergoing the same sentence in the prison at 
Passau, on the Danube. 

The story of their crime, its swift disco- 
very, and their subsequent trial was in all 
the English papers early in the spring of this 
year. Owing to the rank and position of the 
criminals, it made a very painful sensation in 
Austria. The story in detail is too horrible 
to relate, but a slight summary may be briefly 
given. 

I must first explain that in Austria there is 
an institution of deaconesses, into which, if a 
young lady can trace an unbroken ancestry 
for sixteen generations, she is admitted. 
They have apartments provided for them, as 
well as an addition to any income they pos- 
sess. In Vienna they have six hundred 
florins yearly ; in Prague, in the Hradschin, 
one thousand florins; in the Neustadt " Stift," 



Julie Ebergenye. 235 

one thousand florins ; and in Briinn, nine hun- 
dred florins. 

Their only duty is to attend mass daily. 
They sleep in their room when in residence, 
which is compulsory for the whole of the first 
year. At Neustadt their food is provided as 
at a mess, and they pay very little. They 
have also an opera-box. A carriage and 
footman is shared between every two or 
three. They have the independence and 
privileges of married women when in society. 
The institution was originally almost a reli- 
gious foundation, and generally only old 
ladies were appointed. It is said that the 
Emperor Joseph, on some young lady being 
proposed, said, " Oh ! she is not ugly enough 
yet!" 

Shielded by these privileges, Julie Eber- 
genye seems to have rushed headlong into 
that life of vice and dissipation which is so 



236 Count Chorinsky, 

common in Vienna. At last her roving affec- 
tions 'fixed themselves on Count Chorinsky, 
but a bar to their happiness was the para- 
mount obstruction of a wife. This noble- 
man had, years ago, married a public singer, 
and of this marriage he had long grown 
weary. The wife also was unhappy, wearied 
perhaps of his society, or it might be of 
the neglect with which he treated her, and 
had been for some time living a not very 
creditable life in Munich. Her death, how- 
ever, was soon resolved on ; and, as a first 
step, Julie Ebergenye went to Munich, and 
accidentally made the acquaintance of the 
Countess. Congenial spirits, they soon be- 
came apparently fast friends. 

One evening, Julie Ebergenye, on her 
way to the Opera, called on the Countess, 
and took tea with her. In a short time 
she came out of the sitting-room, and 



Murder of the Countess. 237 

begged the servant of the Countess Cho- 
rinsky to order her a carriage. When the 
carriage arrived, the servant went up to 
announce it; but the saloon door was 
closed and locked. The servant imagined 
that the ladies had got tired of waiting, 
and gone to the Opera on foot. 

Next morning, as the door was still fast, 
it was determined to break it open. When 
this was done, the dead body of the 
wretched Countess Chorinsky was found. 
As the key of the door and the tea-pot 
were missing, this, with the disappearance 
of Julie Ebergenye, gave sufficient clue to 
the police. With the strange fatality which 
so often accompanies crime, Julie Eber- 
genye had carried with her the tea-pot 
containing the dregs of the poison, and 
also the key of the room in which the 
murder was committed. A full clue was 



238 The Trial and Sentence. 

discovered in a packet of Count Cho- 
rinsky's letters, found on the female pri- 
soner, many of them urging her on to 
the commission of the frightful crime, " for 
which Heaven would bless her I" 

The means employed in the accomplish- 
ment of the crime were clearly disclosed 
at the trial. From the deposition of the 
landlady of the house in which Countess 
Chorinsky lodged, it appeared that the un- 
fortunate woman was urged to go to her 
and borrow some opera-glasses. During 
her absence, it was inferred, her "friend" 
took the opportunity of putting the poison 
into the tea-pot. There can be no doubt 
the crime was clearly proved, and the 
prisoners were sentenced to twenty years 
imprisonment with hard labour. This sen- 
tence seems a light one for such a crime, 
but everyone who considers what twenty 



Prison Life. 239 

years in the prison of Neudorf must be, 
cannot but conclude that death would be 
the more desirable punishment. 

What can be more dreary than the life 
of the female prisoner ? She sits in a large 
room, engaged in spinning, clad in the 
dark coarse prison dress, and with her hair 
cut close. Strict silence is enforced by the 
warders in attendance; but as there are 
women of all classes, some of them the 
lowest dregs of humanity, even the pre- 
sence of the turnkeys at times does not 
prevent scenes of fearful violence, when 
they spring at each other like wild beasts, 
and can only be separated by seizing 
them . by the throats and half strangling 
them! How miserable must such an ex- 
istence be to a young woman of six-and- 
twenty, accustomed to all the refinements 
and luxuries of life ! Fancy how dull 



240 Laxenburg. 

must be the long, wearisome summer days, 
with their tedious and monotonous task ! 
How dreary must be the long winter 
nights, when the winds howl dismally 
round the prison walls, as if reproaching 
her for the crimes which have made her 
the inmate of a gaol. What must be her 
reflections during the week spent in soli- 
tary confinement at each anniversary of 
her crime, in that gloomy November, when 
the fogs, creeping up from the Danube, 
wrap the prison, as it were, in a shroud. 
If she can over-live these twenty years, 
what will be her feelings when she leaves 
those walls, and returns amongst her fel- 
low-men, stripped of honours and position, 
and with the never-dying memory of her 
crime. 

Laxenburg, the present palace, and the 
old building which stands close by, do not 



Gardens of the Palace. 241 

contain anything to interest the visitor. 
The Imperial servants, however, were most 
anxious to show us the rooms occupied by 
Prince Napoleon, which on inquiry proved 
to be those recently done up, and in- 
habited, during a two days' stay this sum- 
mer, by Prince Jerome Bonaparte. As, 
however, their inspection did not ^possess 
any attraction for us, we declined, and 
proceeded at once, and alone, to admire 
the beautiful trees which surrounded the 
palace, many of them of great age and 
large girth. 

The flower-beds on the lawn were most 
tastefully laid out in ribbon patterns, not 
too complicated or artificial-looking. The 
bright hot summers in this part of Austria 
soon give a very tropical appearance to 
the gardens that are really cared for. 
Most of the hot-house plants are turned 



242 Nature and Art, 

out in May into the open borders, and by 
constant care and watering they soon at- 
tain, under the hot bright sun, a luxuriant 
growth which, alas ! in England they never 
acquire. 

The oak-trees are very fine, and some 
of them of a great age. They abound in 
squirrels — " oak-cats," as they call them 
here. I must confess there are rather too 
many statues and bridges. "Knight's 
shrines," " Farms," " Hero monuments," and 
such ornamental structures, surprise one too 
frequently. The trees, however^ are so 
thick and luxuriant that all these little 
Cockney edifices do not burst on us at 
once, and we have time, in admiring the 
glories of nature, to recover from the effects 
produced by art. 

At the end of the park, in a temple 
erected on an island in the lake, is a most 



Islands in the Lake. 243 

perfect specimen of ancient Roman mosaic, 
in excellent preservation. The floor of the 
principal saloon, I should think eighteen or 
twenty feet square, is entirely composed 
of it. In the centre are two figures, " The- 
seus and Ariadne." It was brought from 
Salzburg, where it was accidentally dis- 
covered when they were digging in Mo- 
zart's Platz for a foundation for the statue 
erected in honour of that composer, in 1842. 
On the largest island in the lake is 
built in red stone an exact representation 
of an ancient castle in the time of the 
Templars. The approach to it is by a 
heavy ferry-boat, worked by windlass ; but 
I should certainly strike work if I were 
the ferry- woman, for the work must be 
both tedious and hard. In the interior are 
most lovely gems of ancient Venetian glass, 
old china, jewelled reliques, beautiful old 

r2 



244 The Chapel 

china stones, old silver, and crystal goblets. 
Of all it contains, however, some of the 
ceilings are the objects that most took my 
fancy. They are of oak and other woods, 
so beautifully carved, many of them hun- 
dreds of years old, taken from old castles 
in the Tyrol, or in Upper Austria. One is 
especially striking, with very massive and 
rich carving, and inlaid with heavy bosses 
of steel ; it came from Wallenstein's house 
at Eger in Bohemia. 

The chapel is extremely small, and built 
exactly after one at Kloster Neuburg, which 
Leopold the Glorious built ; and the altar 
is from a small parish church in Styria, 
the first Christian church built in those 
parts. In short, churches, castles, and houses 
seem to have been ransacked for treasures 
to decorate this toy castle. The vestry 
of the chapel contains the holy vessel 



Adventure of Maximilian 1. 245 

which held the sacrament with which the 
priest gave the benediction to the Em- 
peror Maximilian the First, when he was 
hanging suspended from the edge of a 
precipice which he had ventured too near 
in the ardour of chamois-hunting in the 
Tyrol. He was luckily rescued by a moun- 
taineer, on a poaching expedition, who came 
to his assistance. 

In a room adjoining the chapel, is a large 
oil-painting representing the rescue of the 
Emperor ; but there has been more than a 
painter's licence allowed in the representa- 
tion, as the Emperor is kneeling in great 
comfort in a very snug little cave on the 
face of the precipice. The rest of the hunt 
and a mass of people are below, with the 
priest and attendants. 

The castle also contains a dungeon and 
a torture-chamber. A fine view is seen 



246 Castle of Franzensberg. 

from the summit of the watch-tower — at 
least, as good a view as can be expected 
in this hopelessly flat country. We see as 
far as Vienna on one side — to the Schnee- 
berg and Styrian hills on the south. The 
rising grounds above Brtihl are visible in 
the west; and our gaze may wander far 
away over the long flat plain of Hungary 
on the east. 

After the ascent of the tower, we have 
seen all the sights of the Castle of Fran- 
zensberg, and can again wander out into 
the park and enjoy the shade of the beau- 
tiful trees, or explore numberless walks, and 
discover cascades, rustic bridges, fish-ponds, 
and temples at every turn. Near the 
castle is a tilting-yard, one hundred and 
fifty-four paces long, and seventy-seven 
wide, where occasionally tournament par- 
ties are held. After that is seen, we have 



Modling, 247 

finished the tour of Laxenburg, and have 
only to stroll about the lovely grounds, or 
drink coffee or beer at the " Goldener Stern," 
which is close to the royal palace,, till it is 
time to return. 

On the way between Laxenburg and 
Briinn, we pass through the very interest- 
ing town of Modling, where also a day 
can be very pleasantly spent in exploring 
the Rathhaus, the curious remains of the 
old parish church, and the very picturesque 
church of St. Othmar (which makes a 
beautiful sketch from the barracks). The 
town itself is full of picturesque houses 
and streets. The Rathhaus is a queer, 
picturesque-looking building, and in front 
is a drinking-fountain, from the centre of 
which grows a tree, with long graceful 
plumes of coarse grass round the roots — 
it is so pretty! 



248 Ancient Strongholds. 

From Modling a lovely walk under fine 
stone pines takes us up the valley of the 
Briihl, and over its vineclad hills, past 
five or six ruins of old castles, some of 
them flagrantly artificial. Among them, 
however, are the real remains of the 
Liechtenstein and Babenberg strongholds. 
They must have been grand-looking resi- 
dences before the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, when the wild Turkish hordes 
poured themselves over the land, laying 
everything waste before them with fire and 
sword. Prince Liechtenstein has built him- 
self an exceedingly comfortable-looking, good- 
sized modern house, from which he looks, 
no doubt without regret, over the smooth 
lawns and beautifully-arranged flower-beds, 
at the old ruined homes of his ancestors. 

With the churches about here it is dif- 
ferent. No one has cared to restore them, 



Church of St. Othmar. 249 

and until recently they were in a sad state. 
The Church of St. Othmar, after standing 
unroofed for more than a hundred years, 
has at last been roofed, cleaned white- 
washed, painted, and covered with gild- 
ing. 

Some of the remains are of exquisite 
beauty, such as the fragments of fine 
columns and delicate, graceful stonework. 
There is also a remnant of a finely-carved 
Sacramentshauslein, with exceedingly curi- 
ous wrought open-work iron doors, impos- 
sible to describe. It is very ingeniously 
constructed, and, we were informed, drew 
forth high commendations from a connois- 
seur in antiquities. There is also here, 
as at Petersdorf, an under-church, now only 
used as a wood or store-house; and in the 
churchyard stands the tower, with a cupo- 
la-shaped, mosque-like wooden top; but it 



250 



The Tower, 



is not very large or high. St. Othmar is 
supposed to have been built by the Knight 
Templars. 



(STfrapttr XIII. 



RAILWAY FROM VIENNA TO LINZ — VIEWS ROUND SALZBURG — 
CAVES OF THE UNTERSBERG — THE SLEEPING WARRIORS OF 
KAISER KARL — GNOMES — A PROPHETIC TREE — STRIFE IN A 
CONVENT — APPEARANCE AND COSTUME OF THE PEASANTRY 
— DIALECT OF THE DISTRICT. 



253 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TTTE could not stay long enough in Briinn 
* ' to attend the vintage feast, as the 
harvest would occupy three weeks longer, 
and we had to go to Salzburg. So we 
bade adieu to the happy vintage grounds, 
and all the glories and delights of Vienna, 
and found ourselves, without adventure or 
incident, safely arrived at Salzburg. 

The railway from Vienna to Linz is 
nearly equal to the journey by Danube 
steamer between those cities. The course 
which it takes is winding and pretty. 
It is very pleasant when, after passing 



254 Plains round Brunn. 

Linz, we come in sight of the beautiful 
ranges of mountains again ; though all tastes 
do not agree even about mountains. One 
of the servants was gazing wistfully from 
the railway platform at Brunn over the 
flat, dreary plains which stretched for miles 
around, only varied by herds of cattle and 
a line of dust-clouds which marked the high 
road from Vienna. 

"It is very ugly," remarked her mis- 
tress. 

" Oh ! dear no," said the servant, who 
was a Highlander. "I was thinking how 
very beautiful such very even, flat land 
is. I am so tired of mountains — I have 
seen them all my life." 

What we are accustomed to, we do not 
often value; and as frequently we set an 
undue worth on what is scarce or uncom- 
mon. Some years ago, we were travelling 



Good Water wasted. 255 

in North Italy, on onr way home from 
Malta, and we had a Maltese servant with 
us. One night we stopped at an inn 
to sleep, before the ascent of the Simplon. 

Strolling out in the evening, we came 
upon the Maltese leaning over a bridge 
which crossed a broad mountain stream. 
The noise of the rushing water prevented 
the man hearing us till we came quite 
close, and we saw he was gazing most 
wistfully into the waters. On being asked 
if the stream was not very beautiful, he 
answered, 

"Oh! most beautiful! but it makes me 
sad to see such good water running away, 
and all wasted." 

He had been comparing this mighty stream 
with the tiny rills which are thought so 
precious, and guarded so jealously, in his 
sunny but arid little island. 



256 Scenery round Salzburg. 

This summer some foreigners were visit- 
ing in Salzburg, and expressed great dis- 
appointment with the place. "How could 
people talk of the beautiful scenery? Why, 
the mountains shut out all the view." Per- 
haps they also would have preferred the 
"beautiful even plains." 

I cannot understand anyone being disap- 
pointed in the scenery round Salzburg. 
There are miles of rich fertile pasture 
lands, sufficiently varied with fine avenues 
and orchards of fruit-trees to make the 
rides and drives for a great distance round 
sheltered and pleasant ; while in the dis- 
tance we behold chains of the most beau- 
tifully-broken and rugged mountains. Nearer 
the city, the mighty Untersberg rears itself 
to a height of six thousand feet. In its 
rich caverns the Kaiser Karl, with his hosts 
of armed men, is sunk in a magic sleep — 



Popular Prophecy. 257 

Emperor, knights, and soldiers, all repose 
with their arms in their hands, waiting till 
the Emperor's beard shall have grown three 
times round a table at which he is seated. 
His daughter Emma, whose duty it is to 
measure this beard, is near. When the 
magnificent beard has for the third time 
made the circumference of the table, this 
powerful host, roused from the magic spell 
of sleep, will start to their arms, and will 
make their war-cry ring through the caves 
and vaults of Untersberg. A fearful battle, 
according to popular prophecy, is then to 
rage on the fertile plains below ; after 
which Germany is once more to form a 
united empire ! How those stern old war- 
riors must have stirred in their sleep, im- 
patient at the slow growth of their Em- 
peror's beard, when the Prussian armies 
swept through the fatherland! No doubt 



258 Gnomes, 

when the fulness of the time is accom- 
plished, they will know how to unite Ger- 
many under one imperial sceptre by the 
flash of their bright swords and the power 
of their strong arms. 

These sleeping warriors are waited on 
by gnomes, queer little brown men, not 
many inches high, whose resemblance is 
carved in wood by most of the wood- 
workers around. They are perfectly harm- 
less and inoffensive, and inclined to be kind 
to the peasants ; but since the times of rail- 
ways and tourists they are not often seen. 
On three or four days in the year, at mid- 
night, they congregate in the Cathedral, 
and at a few other churches, where they 
hold high mass. Such are the legends, 
firmly believed by the peasants, of the 
marvels contained in the Untersberg or 
Wunderberg. 



View from the Windows, 259 

The house that my friends have just pur- 
chased here is a most charming little nest, 
perched up on a ledge of rock on the 
Nonnberg, with just room for a carriage to 
creep up to the door. Behind the house the 
beautiful rocks rise steep up to the Castle. 
So bluff and precipitous are they, that 
when the snow melts, or a heavy rain falls, 
a wooden covered sluice, which runs along 
the baclj: of the house, is opened, and the 
water is carried off under the house. If 
this is neglected most disastrous results fol- 
low, and the water has been known to 
pour in through ceilings, wardrobes, and 
stones. 

The view from these windows is most 
lovely, over the rich, fertile plains, where 
the peasants are now (in October) busily 
employed getting in a third and very good- 
looking crop of hay. In the middle distance 

s 2 



260 Magic Pear-tree, 

rise the hills round Hellbrtinn, with their 
rich covering of trees in their autumnal 
hues; while further off is a panorama of 
wonderful beauty, in the high chains of the 
Noric Alps. Just below our feet He gardens 
and orchards, with a few houses among 
them. In their midst the parish church 
stands up very prominently. 

The vines have even here been covered 
with an abundant crop of splendid grapes. 
The climate is generally so cold that they 
do not ripen every summer, but this hot 
season has produced a marvellous show. 
Apples and pears, too, have been abun- 
dant. 

The most remarkable wonder near Salz- 
burg is a magic pear-tree, that grows near 
the Untersberg. When this tree blossoms 
it is believed to be a sure foreboding of 
war. In 1848 it was covered with bloom, 



Convent Life. 261 

and again in 1866, when crowds went out 
from Salzburg to see it. 

We are in very good company here, for, 
besides having the church just below us, 
we have also a convent close by, with a 
chapel containing some curious paintings 
round the altar. The closely-trellised gal- 
leries, where the nuns sit, look very mys- 
terious. Who that sees the calm, serene 
expression of their faces would imagine 
that even in such a place worldly thoughts 
and worldly strifes intrude? I fear there 
is but too much reason to believe so. 

An Austrian friend of mine was quarter- 
ed in Bergamo. From the citadel the 
officers looked down upon the town, and 
amongst other places a convent garden, where 
they used often to see the nuns walking. 
In fine weather it was usual for them to 
carry out their work and employ them- 



262 Commotion among the Nuns. 

selves at their needle. The officers noticed 
that at one time they suddenly divided 
themselves into separate parties, which al- 
ways avoided any communication with each 
other. One day, however, a fearful com- 
motion was observed amongst the gentle 
devotees. They rushed about in all direc- 
tions, with abundant gesticulation. What 
was it that had so suddenly roused them 
from their usual lethargy into such a state 
of excitement? 

A few days afterwards the officers learned 
from a lady in the town the solution of 
the mystery. A German archbishop in Ber- 
gamo had just died, and a young Italian 
was appointed as his successor. The nuns 
separated into two parties, one remaining 
faithful to the old love, and the other eager 
to throw itself into the arms of the new. 
One side were all for the excellent de- 



Bavarian Costume. 2 Go 

ceased, and the other were for the ex- 
pected Italian. The war of words between 
the fair opponents ran at last so high, 
that, in a fit of pious zeal, one of the 
nuns stabbed another with her scissors. The 
wound was a severe one, and unfortunately 
ultimately proved fatal. And this act of vio- 
lence was perpetrated in the calm retirement 
of convent life ! 

Salzburg is so close to the Bavarian 
frontier, that many of the peasant women 
of that country come in on market or 
saint days. They wear the frightful high, 
black-glazed hat of Bavaria, contrasting un- 
favourably with the head-dress of the women 
of the Salzkammergut, which is very pretty 
and useful. It consists only of a square 
of black silk tied tightly round the head, 
drawn in folds behind, and the ends left 
hanging on each side. For full dress they 



264 Women of Salzburg, 

also wear a black velvet bodice, ornamented 
with silver buttons, and a broad necklace, 
composed of seven or eight chains of sil- 
ver, fastened in front by a deep-embossed 
or jewelled clasp, and worn tight round the 
neck. This ornament is worn in a great 
measure to conceal the large goitres and 
full throats which abound in this town. 

The women are singularly plain in Salz- 
burg. Even their own countryman, in his 
guide-book, says he must be ungallant 
enough to mention that they "are small, 
and possess little beauty !" Nor have the 
men anything to boast of, for in their own 
way they are no better-looking than the 
women; and people ascribe their inferior 
looks very much to the way in which 
they spend their lives. Remaining in close 
rooms, heated by stoves, the whole or 
greater part of the day, and breathing only 



Costume of the Peasantry. 265 

the stifling fames of tobacco smoke, or 
what Herr Noe calls " mephistischen Diinsten" 
can be favourable neither to the production 
of beauty nor to the development of mus- 
cular strength. 

The peasant men are quite as fond of 
silver ornaments as the women. They wear 
broad, pointed velvet waist-bands, generally 
embroidered in silver, with some select 
motto or expressive word. Their coats too 
are covered with rows of either plain sil- 
ver buttons, or silver groschen made into 
buttons. For its size, there are almost as 
many silver shops in Salzburg as in Genoa ; 
and the things are not at all dear, pro- 
vided you get a German to buy them for 
you; for though the shopkeepers in Salz- 
burg are not quite so hostile to strangers 
as the worthies represented in that charm- 
ing sketch in Punch some years ago — 



266 The Dialect. 

"It's a stranger, let's 'eave 'alf a brick at 
him ;" yet there is everywhere the feeling, 
"It's a stranger, let's make what we can 
out of him." 

The dialect, too, is fearfully Bavarian — 
ugly and broad. Of course the German we 
are taught in England by Hanoverians, is 
here considered — by the country people, at 
least — as singularly affected and contempt- 
ible! The townspeople and higher orders 
speak very easy and pretty German — far 
superior to the shrill Deutsch one hears in 
Vienna. The dialect of Briinn am Geberge 
is the worst I ever heard. Some of the 
words were perfectly unintelligible to me. 
When they told me not to walk that road, 
for there was a " hog " at the end, I had 
to reflect some minutes before I came to 
the conclusion that they might possibly 
mean a "Hecke," or hedge. I have often 



Unintelligible Words. 267 

been startled by some warning about a 
Thier (beast), till I discovered that the 
" beast " in question was a Thiir (door). In 
other parts of Germany, we are accustomed 
to have cream offered to us with tea, as 
" Rahm," or " Sahne." One looks rather at 
a loss, therefore, when "Oberst" is pro- 
posed to him, perhaps in his first surprise 
thinking that, if he should give his assent, a 
colonel or some high official may be popped 
into his tea-cup. 



(©f^apte XIV. 



POST-OFFICE ROUTINE — STAMPS — OFFICIAL NEGLECT — PRO- 
GRESS OF AUSTRIA — MONCHBERG — CHATEAU OF AIGEN — 
THE GAISBERG— POLITENESS OF SOLDIERS — FOX- SHOOTING 
— PREPARATIONS FOR -WINTER — COLD NIGHTS — THE PEA- 
SANTS AT HOME. 




271 



CHAPTER XIV. 

rpHE most troublesome people we have 
* come in contact with are decidedly 
those of the post-office. The wearisome 
routine, the unnecessary formalities, of this 
Royal institution try one's temper sadly. 
If one sends a parcel by post, he must 
seal it with a fabulous number of seals — 
fourteen is no unusual number. Before a 
parcel can be sent by post to England, 
five papers must be signed. The trans- 
mission of a registered letter is almost as 
formidable an affair as making a last will 
and testament ! 



272 Post-office Routine. 

I was intensely amused one day when 
I took a small wooden box to the post- 
office in Salzburg, to send by post. It 
contained only a small stag's head, carved 
in wood, which I wished copied, and was 
to go no further than Ebensee. It was 
solemnly received by an official, who lei- 
surely read the direction, and with official 
dignity turned the box over. It was then 
handed to another, who, after inspecting 
it as cautiously and minutely as if it had 
been an infernal machine, consulted a third. 
When a rather lengthened consultation was 
ended, they informed me that they regretted 
they could not send it, as there were no 
seals to it. I said I had no sealing-wax, 
and that as it was so light, I thought it 
would go perfectly well without. Such a 
thing, they said, was not to be thought 
of. I cast an imploring look at a big stick 



Affixing Seals. 273 

of sealing-wax, nearly as thick as my 
wrist, which was lying on a desk; but 
that mute appeal to official benevolence 
remained unanswered. I supposed they con- 
sidered it would be a wholesome lesson in 
Imperial routine if I had to take a little 
trouble. 

With a look of silent indignation, which 
was entirely disregarded, I took up my 
little box, and went across with it from 
the post-office to the Schiff Hotel, where 
I begged the son of the landlady to pro- 
cure for me the necessary materials. He 
very obligingly got light and wax, soon 
covered the box with a surprising number 
of seals, wrote out the direction on a half 
sheet of paper, and affixed a stamp of five 
kreutzers to it. Armed with this and my 
decorated box, I again approached the of- 
ficials. Once more my box was handed 

T 



274 Stamps. 

from one to the other, and scrutinized as 
narrowly as if they had not seen it five 
minntes before. One faithful servant of the 
Emperor's suggested one more seal in a 
spot where, by great exertions, the string 
that was tied round the box might have 
been moved the tenth part of an inch ! 
Luckily for my patience, and the credit of 
an Englishwoman for good manners, this 
objection was overruled; and after signing 
another paper, the Government undertook 
the important charge, and I got rid of my 
box. 

Stamps are a great institution in Austria. 
They have to be bought for everything. 
When a bill is sent in it has a stamp. 
Every almanack has one. No one would 
depend on a servant's written character 
without one. Every newspaper we receive 



Marriage of Officers, 275 

must have a receipt-stamp as well as the 
post-stamp on it. All the printed forms of 
law, and all military papers, have several. 
I used to expect to see a stamp on the bills 
of fare. In short, the routine of Imperial 
business seems a marvellous mixture of un- 
necessary punctilio, conjoined in many cases 
with an utter want of precaution, In fact, 
the system appears occasionally to overleap 
itself. 

"When an officer marries he has to 
lodge a sum of money in the hands of 
his considerate Kaiser, as a future provision 
for his widow or children. If he is under 
thirty the sum lodged is 24,000 Gulden. 
After thirty it is 12,000; and if on half- 
pay, 6,000. For this they are promised five 
per cent. ; but officers having been lately 
included in the number of those who pay 

T 2 



276 Absconding of an Agent. 

income-tax, they only get about three per 
cent, for it. If the State becomes bank- 
rupt — which happened in the last Emperor's 
time — all the caution-money, as it is called, 
goes in the general ruin, and no one can 
imagine the misery that is entailed. 

When the officer places this money in 
the hands of the official appointed to re- 
ceive it, he has to leave it for some time 
without even obtaining a receipt for it. 
Last month a lieutenant had lodged his 
caution-money, and the next morning the 
agent absconded, carrying off the sum with 
him. The papers have been full of adver- 
tisements, the object of which is the dis- 
covery of "Edward Lachermaier, Military 
Register Official," and of the unfortunate 
officer's 6,000 florins. 

One must not, however, expect too much 
at once ; and notwithstanding the large 



Military Precautions. 217 

army and the dread of bankruptcy, Austria 
is every day getting more busy and more 
satisfied. Useful reforms are carried out. 
The Government is laying the foundation 
of improved institutions. The nation is 
beginning to understand that active in- 
dustry will be more effective in developing 
the resources of their rich and splendid 
country than the subjugation of unwilling 
races, the extension of their conquests, or 
reliance on the chimera of a feeble Bund. 

Still, proper precautions are not neg- 
lected. Every day, from the citadel above 
us, we hear, at stated hours, the reserve 
corps practising with the new breech-load- 
ing guns. The drilled soldiers have already 
learned their exercise, and they are now 
calling up the reserve corps for practice. 
Lately an order has been issued that no 
soldiers are henceforward to be addressed 



278 New Regulation. 

in the second person singular, as hereto- 
fore, but in the second person plural, as 
more respectful to men who cany arms. 
The officers laugh, and shake their heads 
at this new regulation, and up to the pre- 
sent moment have not generally obeyed it, 
for I always hear them calling the soldiers, 
when off duty, by the old accustomed 
" Du." I suppose, by degrees, they will 
get reconciled to the change, as well as 
to the substitution of blue for white uni- 
forms — but that they sadly regret the latter 
no one can doubt. 

I cannot understand why Salzburg is not 
more known, more talked about, and more 
praised in England than it is. It certainly 
strikes me as not only one of the most 
beautifully-situated towns that I ever saw, 
but also as such an excellent place whence 
to make excursions. The town is very like 



Site of Salzburg. 279 

Edinburgh, only, instead of the well-ar- 
ranged streets of the new town, those 
in Salzburg are narrow, old-fashioned ones. 
Instead of the Calton Hill, there is the 
beautiful Capucinenberg, with its wooded 
sides enclosed above the rocky base with 
a picturesque line of wall and towers. In- 
stead of the one rock on which Edinburgh 
Castle stands, there is a much higher and 
more broken range of rocks, crowned on 
its highest summit by the old fortress, and 
in other parts covered with luxuriant beech 
woods and fertile meadows, among which, 
every here and there, a strong-looking 
powder-magazine, or a high watch-tower, 
reminds us that we are just on the verge 
of what has been an enemy's country. 

The Monchsberg is a strikingly beautiful 
place for those who can stand the keen 
air of Salzburg. Perhaps it is for this 



280 Ascent of the Monchsberg. 

reason that it is not half appreciated by 
the inhabitants. The few houses are soon 
closed in autnmn; and, in my many wan- 
derings over it, I have met very few peo- 
ple. It is wonderful that it should be so, 
for after we have surmounted the many 
nights of steps, or the steep road that 
leads up to it from the town, how ample 
is the reward! Exquisite views meet us 
at every turn. Wandering on for hours, 
we may find fresh beauties to delight us. 
In the full blaze of sunlight, at sunset, 
and even by starlight, new views disclose 
themselves. 

I have never yet managed to walk there 
at that early hour when, as the poetic 
German guide-books remarks, "Any one 
will be enchanted to observe the heavy 
mists roll from the mountains and sink in 
the valleys, and the white rocky moun- 



Chateau of Aigen. 281 

tain summits change from the pale pink 
of Silene to the full rich crimson of the 
' Rose des Alpes ;' " but at every other time 
the view has been so charming, that it re- 
quires very little imagination to form a 
vivid picture of the above description with- 
out having to undergo the ordeal of such 
early rising. The fields on the summit are 
beautiful in early spring, I am told, with 
the lovely wild-flowers which abound round 
Salzburg. Now they are only ornamented 
with the pale autumn crocus and the thickly- 
falling gold and scarlet leaves of the thorn 
and maples. 

We took a sharp drive one day to the 
Chateau of Aigen, belonging to Prince 
Schwarzenberg. The house itself is nothing 
to look at, nor are the gardens round it. 
The most pleasant recollection is of some 
excellent coffee we drank under the shady 



282 Beautiful View. 

trees, at a restaurant which the Prince has 
obligingly allowed to be established at his 
back-door ! The walks beyond the gardens 
are through shady woods of fine forest-trees, 
by the side of small mountain streams, 
over neat rustic bridges, and up winding 
hill-sides, which are shaded and cool, and 
from which we have peeps, through the 
thick foliage, of distant mountain-tops 
clothed in dazzling snow. 

One such view is not far from the house, 
and is well worth the drive from Salzburg 
on purpose to see it alone. In a frame of 
thick beech-boughs is a sunny picture of 
fields and moors stretching for miles to- 
wards the mountains, and crowned by the 
pointed and peaked summits of the Watz- 
mann, which is certainly the most striking- 
looking of the chain of mountains that sur- 
round Salzburg, but which we cannot see 



Polite Soldiers. 283 

from that city, as it is shut out by the 
grim Untersberg. 

From Aigen the ascent of the Gaisberg 
is made, and the view obtained from the 
summit is considered well worth the climb ; 
but we were too happy and contented 
with our easy wood walks to think of toil. 
It was nearly as warm as it is in June, 
and we were glad to rest at the before- 
mentioned restaurant, and drink some hot 
coffee, while others had good sparkling 
beer, served by a smart-looking man of 
unmistakeably soldier-like appearance. On 
inquiring if he had not been a soldier, his 
answer, with a beaming smile to our friend, 
was, "I served under you in Italy, my 
Colonel." 

The soldiers are very much more sociable 
than in England. I suppose this may be 
owing to the pleasant ease and natural 



284 Sport. 

freedom of foreign manners. Those who 
had been to the house with messages, or 
who had ever spoken with any of the 
family, if we met them again, would al- 
ways remove their cigars, and exchange 
some polite greeting as we passed. 

The peasants, every holiday, employ their 
time in practising rifle-shooting at different 
villages, and they are mostly excellent marks- 
men, though they have not many opportuni- 
ties of proving their skill, except at the bull's 
eye. Game, which is scarce round Salzburg, 
is strictly preserved. Two gentlemen dined 
with us one evening, on their return from a 
long shooting excursion, and, except a 
couple of wild deer, their bag boasted only 
of three foxes. One can never get used 
to the idea of a fox being shot as any- 
thing legitimate, and I shall never, I fear, 
learn to repress a strong inclination to 



Departure of the Sivalloivs. 285 

laugh when I am informed of the result 
of a day's fox-shooting. 

Small, different- coloured rosettes are given 
to the soldiers, to wear in their caps as re- 
wards or decorations for skilful shooting. I 
have counted as many as nine in some of 
the men's caps. The nearer they hit the 
bull's eye, the larger is the rosette. The 
largest are about the size of half-a-crown, 
and the small ones are about the diameter 
of a sixpence. Some of the soldiers have 
the one side of their caps nearly covered 
with them. 

My holiday is drawing to a close, and I 
must soon be thinking of returning to Eng- 
land. Already the swallows, which here 
build in the most sociable way inside front 
halls and over kitchen doors, have taken 
their departure to the sunny south. It is 
becoming in the early mornings so cold, 



286 Preparations for Winter. 

that the maid-servants talk confidentially of 
leaving off starch in their own and the 
children's cotton-dresses — a precaution al- 
ways adopted here in winter! In England 
we generally trust to our luck that it 
may be a mild winter, and the preparations 
we make are very small in fortifying our- 
selves and our houses against cold. But 
here it is perfectly formidable to see the 
work that is goiug on. The plants that 
have adorned the terraces and verandahs 
of Salzburg during the bright summer days 
are already safely housed. Double windows 
are snugly fitted in; the weather-side of 
verandahs are tightly boarded over ; the 
beautiful public fountains in the town are 
being fast converted into large wooden 
erections. Every statue, every carved grave- 
stone, every sun-dial, is being swathed in 
straw. Even the rose-trees and stocks are 



Packing up the Vines. 287 

enveloped in great-coats ; and everywhere 
the town looks as if preparing for a 
siege. 

Passing lately by a house on our ledge 
of rock, I found that all the tall vines 
that had decorated it so luxuriantly up to 
the third story, had been stripped down, 
and were now being pruned, doubled up, 
and packed away in the most uncomfort- 
able-looking manner, under a boarding of 
wood. I stopped and begged to know the 
reason. They told me it was always done 
in winter, for that, if left growing against 
the houses, they would not survive the 
cold. Next week, they informed me, the 
vines against the Colonel's house would be 
served in the same manner. 

I have a great wish to see Salzburg in 
its winter dress. I am told that, when 
everything here has been covered with a 



288 Salzburg in Winter, 

week's steady snowing, the frost is so keen, 
and there is such a remarkable absence of 
wind, that the snow lies in wreaths upon 
the trees and fences, and in piles of 
such depth upon the ground as are sel- 
dom seen elsewhere. Everything about, 
however, is still in such fall autumn lux- 
uriance, the foliage is so abundant, and the 
colours so beautiful, that I feel I should 
be sorry to watch the gradual decay of 
all this beauty. I should regret to see the 
luxuriant vines, from which I had picked 
in the hot sunshine such delicious bunches 
of grapes, all laid down in the dust, and 
their dead leaves swept unceremoniously 
away. 

It has rained heavily the last few days, 
and though the red umbrellas of the pea- 
sants, glancing in and out through the 
yellow, green, and scarlet foliage, in the 



Indications of Winter. 289 

plains below, make the landscape look al- 
most cheerful, yet the chains of mountains 
beyond are already clad in their white 
winter robes. Untersberg no longer stands 
out in that hard, iron-grey hue which is 
natural to it, but its ragged peaks, its pine 
forests, and even the deserted huts of the 
herdsmen, are covered with a smooth mantle 
of spotless snow, which rounds and softens 
them. 

It is freezingly cold in the nights, and 
the winter stoves are so invitingly warm, 
that the peasants have no inclination to 
wander out in the cold moonlight that 
glimmers so drearily over Untersberg's 
wintry shroud, to discover whether, under 
the frosty starlight of winter, as in the 
warm summer nights, the gnomes pace 
wearily over the mountain, looking long- 
ingly and eagerly for the first welcome 

U 



290 The Fatherland. 

signs of release. Alas! alas! for the hope 
of a united Fatherland! It has long been 
gradually dying away from living breasts, 
and soon the only spot in Germany round 
which the vain legend will cling will be 
the Kaiser's grave in mighty Untersberg. 



m%K$hx xv. 



L'HOMME PROPOSE, DIEU DISPOSE — SALZBURG UNDER ITS 
WINTER ASPECT — UNEXPECTED DEATH OF A KIND FRIEND 
— END OF THE SOLDIER'S WARFARE — GOD'S-ACRE — FUNE- 
RAL OF LIEUTENANT- COLONEL RITTER VON ARI. 



u 2 



293 



CHAPTER XV. 

TT7E went cheerfully on through the bright 
" * autumn months, enjoying the present, 
and planning Alpine excursions and long 
mountain expeditions for next year. All 
that we were too idle, or too contented with 
our home happiness, to accomplish now, We 
intended to crowd into next summer. Alas! 
for us short-sighted mortals — my wish to 
see Salzburg in snow, winter, and tempest 
was too speedily gratified, but in a very 
different way from that which we had 
hoped and planned. 

I had left Salzburg in the last days of 
October, bright and sunny, all decked in 



294 Again in Nonnberg. 

its golden autumnal colouring. A fortnight 
passed, and I was again there, in the 
beautiful Salzkammergut, in the pretty- 
house at Nonnberg, that nestles under the 
rocks and citadel, in the home which I had 
left so recently in all its cheerful bright- 
ness ; but how changed in those few days ! 
Not only had the heavy autumn winds and 
the wintry tempests shaken ruthlessly every 
golden vestige of bright summer from the 
trees, but the white snow was spread over 
the wide plains and distant mountains, far 
as the eye could see. Hanging in thick 
masses, it weighed down every tiny twig 
and stem. It had swept into the recesses 
of the vast pine forests. Every little frozen 
rill and stream was covered with it. 

But blank and dreary as was the aspect 
of nature, it was not half so desolate as 
that home where we had passed so many 



AjSoldier's Warfare Accomplished. 295 

bright days. In our short absence, the 
Angel of Death had visited it, and the 
heart of the survivor refused to be com- 
forted. With the first sharp days of win- 
ter, the worshipped husband, the loving 
father, and the warm-hearted friend had 
been suddenly summoned away. The brave 
soldier's warfare was accomplished, and all 
his toils and troubles were over for ever I 

Once more I gazed from the windows 
where I had so often stood with him, join- 
ing in his admiration of those beautiful 
changes of colour which in this marvel- 
lously lovely view come over the clouds 
and mountains. A thick fog now rolled 
heavily over everything, enveloping at once 
mountains and plains. It was so dense 
that we could not catch a glimpse even of 
the blue sky, beyond which we hoped our 
departed friend now was. Instead of his 



296 Gods-acre, 

cheerful voice, I could only in fancy hear, 
amid the wailing music of the death march, 
the heavy tread of the soldiers as they bore 
him to his honoured grave. 

Once more I stood under the Capucinen- 
berg, while the setting sun gleamed on its 
summit with a sickly light. I was in a 
quiet burying-ground (or " God's-acre," as 
they call it in Germany), where I was 
about to hang a wreath of glossy bay- 
leaves and pure white chrysanthemum blos- 
soms — picked in a far-away English garden 
— over the grave of one who, only a fort- 
night before, had said to me in the parting 
salutation of his country, " Come back again 
soon." And here I was back again, but 
not as we intended. He who does all things 
well, without whose permission not even a 
sparrow falls to the ground, had ordained 
it otherwise. Here I was, " back again," my 



Flowers on the Tomb. 



297 



frail life mercifully preserved in those two 
short weeks through storms by sea and land, 
and the fearful peril of a railway collision, 
and he, the seemingly strong man, who 
had spoken • those words, had by his own 
hearth succumbed to a mortal disease. But 
it was in His good time, though to us it 
seemed all too soon. 

In that quiet, pretty churchyard, those 
English flowers hang side by side, with 
wreaths of immortelles and Edelweis, and 
with a crown of faded laurel leaves, which 
the loving hands of mourning relatives and 
comrades had already placed there. Masses 
are said and prayers are breathed daily and 
hourly for the repose of that soul which we 
trust is safely landed in the haven of eternal 
rest. 

I cannot close this chapter without show- 
ing how highly loved and esteemed my 



298 A Soldier's Funeral. 

lost friend was, by giving the account of 
his funeral from the papers. 

" The last sad rites were paid to the late 
lamented Lieut.-Colonel Prinzinger von Ari 
on Thursday last. The melancholly proces- 
sion formed at four o'clock at his late resi- 
dence in the Nonnberg. The coffin was 
borne on the shoulders of sixteen soldiers, 
and twenty-four others followed, carrying 
lighted flambeaux. Then came the members 
of the family as chief mourners. 

"As the mournful train was leaving the 
house a salute was fired by the soldiers. 
Arrived at the foot of the Nonnberg, the 
whole garrison formed in order and joined, 
most of the officers being devoted friends 
and comrades of the deceased. By com- 
mand of the Archduke Charles (the father 
of the Emperor of Austria) the procession, 
headed by the fine military band, playing a 



Adolf Prinzinger von Ari. 299 

funeral march, passed through the court of 
the Imperial residence, and from thence by 
the principal streets to the burying-place 
at St. Sebastian. 

" Arrived at the grave of his parents, the 
solemn service was read, the soldiers fired 
three volleys, and the mournful rite was 
over. 

"The deceased officer, Adolf Prinzinger 
Ritter von Ari, was until lately Lieut.- 
Golonel of the 14th Infantry Regiment 
(Grossherzog von Hesse), in the Austrian 
army. He served under Radetzky in 1848, 
again in Italy in 1859, and through the 
campaign in 1866. For his services and 
bravery he was decorated with the Iron 
Crown, the military service cross and crown, 
the order of Louis of Hesse, and the Grand 
Duke Charles Frederick of Baden's military 
service order. 



300 Last Token of Respect. 

"Many were the tears wept over his 
grave, not only by his brave companions in 
arms, but also by the residents and princi- 
pal inhabitants of Salzburg, who had joined 
the funeral train, anxious to show this last 
token of respect to the dead. Every one 
who knew him honoured and loved him, 
and all his comrades and friends lamented 
together that Austria had lost one of her 
bravest and most devoted soldiers!" 



THE END. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE. 



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